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Legislative Council of Hong Kong
Hong KongPolitics

Hong Kong’s pro-establishment bloc moves to pull quorum calls, other delaying tactics from opposition’s Legco playbook

  • Time limits on speeches and caps on the number of lawmakers who can join panels and committees also to be discussed at rules meeting
  • But critics say the changes would cripple the ability to offer any effective resistance to legislation

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Proposals have been floated to further curb filibustering in the Legislative Council. Photo: Nora Tam
Lilian Cheng
Hong Kong’s pro-establishment lawmakers are pushing for another overhaul of the legislature’s rule book in a bid to further curb filibustering, two months after the mass departure of their opposition counterparts.
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But critics fear the latest batch of amendments will “fully” limit dissent and effectively bar lawmakers from voicing concerns over controversial bills in the future.

The proposals – which consisted of more than 100 pages of documents jointly suggested by several pro-establishment lawmakers – were floated more than two months after nearly all of the city’s opposition legislators resigned over a Beijing resolution that disqualified four of their colleagues for perceived disloyalty.

Paul Tse Wai-chun, chairman of the rules of procedure committee in the Legislative Council, confirmed that more than 20 amendments were discussed during a closed-door meeting on Wednesday afternoon.

Among the amendments was one that would scrap the rules allowing lawmakers to make quorum call requests – a tactic frequently used by the opposition to delay proceedings by forcing a headcount.

Under the newly proposed rules, lawmakers would only be allowed to ask the Legco president for a quorum call directly before a vote.

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“[Quorum calls] have always been [an issue] for this legislature,” Tse said after the meeting. “On one hand we have Basic Law Article 75 confining us to a basic quorum, [but on the other], we have been wasting a lot of time when requests for quorum calls were abused time and again. We have been trying to find a way to get around the Basic Law.”

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