Legislative Council (Amendment) Ordinance 2012: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 06:34, 2 May 2013
| Legislative Council (Amendment) Bill 2012 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Legislative Council of Hong Kong | |
| Citation | Legislative Council Ordinance (Cap. 542) § 39 |
| Passed by | Legislative Council of Hong Kong |
| Passed | 1 June 2012 |
| Enacted | 2 August 2012 |
| Legislative history | |
| Introduced by | Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau Raymond Tam Chi-yuen |
| Introduced | 3 February 2012 |
| First reading | 8 February 2012 |
| Second reading | 16 May 2012 |
| Third reading | 1 June 2012 |
| Status: In force | |
The Legislative Council (Amendment) Bill 2012 was a Bill of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. The amendment was to disqualify a resigned member of the Legislative Council from participating by-election. The original proposal was to abolish by-election but sparked vast controversies in the community. The revised Bill restricted a resigned member of the Legislative Council could not join any by-elections within six months.
Background
In January 2010, five pro-democracy Legislative Council members from each of the five geographical constituencies resigned to trigger territory-wide by-elections for the purpose of instigating a so-called “referendum”. They stood in the by-elections and were all re-elected. The 2010 by-election launched by the pro-democracy legislators was strongly criticised by the Beijing government. As government claimed that "views received during the public consultation on the arrangements for filling vacancies in the LegCo indicate that more people consider that the phenomenon of Members resigning at will, triggering by-elections in which they seek to stand, is a mischief that needs to be addressed,"[1] the government therefore tried change the electoral system to plug the "loophole".
Proposal
In original proposal introduced on 8 June 2011, the government proposed a replacement mechanism where a vacancy arising mid-term in the Legislative Council would be filled by the first candidate who had not yet been elected in the list with the largest number of remainder votes. After being strongly opposed and criticised, the government was pressed to conduct a comprehensive public consultation on the proposal as the basic rights of the public would be affected. In July 2011, the Government published a consultation paper in which four options were proposed with regard to the arrangements for filling vacancies in the Legislative Council. Options to fill a casual vacancy arising mid-term in the Legislative Council:[2]
- restricting resigning Members from participating in any by-election in the same term,
- a replacement mechanism using the same candidate list followed by a precedence list system (the Administration’s revised proposal),
- a replacement mechanism which does not cover causal vacancies arising from death, serious illness or other involuntary circumstances; and
- a replacement mechanism using the same candidate list, followed by leaving the seat vacant when the list is exhausted.
The consultation document was opposed by the pro-democracy camp, professionals and legal experts. At last, the government modified the bill to bar the resigning legislator from running again for six months.
Criticisms
The original proposal sparked vast controversies in community and especially in the legal expert as unconstitutional. The Hong Kong Bar Association issued four public statements in two weeks, stating that the government's change violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Hong Kong Bill of Rights.[3] The Bar Association also opposed the revised proposal as its violation to the right to stand for election and right to elect guaranteed in the Article 26 of the Basic Law.[4]
The pro-democracy camp was strongly opposed to the bill, as it was seen as depriving citizens of their political rights.
Filibuster
Albert Chan and Wong Yuk-man of People Power start the filibuster by submitting 1306 amendments altogether to the Legislative Council (Amendment) Bill. Leung Kwok-hung of the League of Social Democrats and Andrew Cheng also participated in the filibustering. Miriam Lau of the Liberal Party] carried out a 30-hour hunger strike to voice her opposition against such act of obstructionism and waste of public coffers. The Legislative Council carried on multiple overnight debates on the amendments with the support of the pro-Beijing camp.
On morning of 17 May 2012, Tsang Yok-sing, President of the Legco adopt Article 92 of the Standing Order, which allows the president follow foreign parliament rules for unregulated behaviors to terminate the debate. In the end, all amendments were defeated and the Bill was passed on 1 June 2012.
References
- ^ "Legislative Council (Amendment) Bill 2012". Hong Kong SAR Government. 1 February 2012. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
- ^ Consultation Paper on Arrangements for Filling Vacancies in the Legislative Council (PDF). July 2011. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
{{cite book}}:|work=ignored (help) - ^ "HKBA's Submission on the Proposed Replacement Arrangement in the Legislative Council (Amendment) Bill 2011 - Press Release". Hong Kong Bar Association. 17 June 2011.
{{cite web}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Missing or empty|url=(help) - ^ "Consultation Paper on Arrangements for Filling Vacancies in the Legislative Council (July 2011) Response of the Hong Kong Bar Association" (PDF). Hong Kong Bar Association. 31 August 2011. Retrieved 2 May 2013.