Hong Kong Legislative Council budget debate adjourned as not enough lawmakers present in chamber
Pro-establishment members blame pan-democrats for the adjournment, saying 10 hours of debate has been wasted; the other camp disagrees
The Legislative Council meeting scrutinising the government’s budget was adjourned on Thursday because not enough lawmakers were in attendance.
Thirty-four lawmakers were present in the chamber, one short of the required 35, after radical pan-democrat Raymond Chan Chi-chuen called for a quorum count, the seventh one requested during the meeting.
Hong Kong Legco president Jasper Tsang slashes number of budget amendments from 2,168 to 407
Legco president Jasper Tsang Yok-sing announced an end to the meeting at 12.28pm, around three hours into Thursday’s session.
At the time of the adjournment, only three pan-democrat lawmakers – the Labour Party’s Cyd Ho Sau-lan, the Democratic Party’s Sin Chung-kai and the Civic Party’s Alan Leong Ka-Kit – were in attendance.
Prior to the adjournment, lawmakers were debating amendments to the budget.
Earlier, the Legco president announced that he expected lawmakers to vote on the government blueprint on May 11 after slashing the number of amendments from 2,168 to just 407 in an attempt to contain the filibuster by radical legislators, who complained that the fiscal blueprint neglected the poor.