Lawmakers Spar In Warm Up For Afternoon Showdown

Lawmakers have spent a 45-minute session warming up for a House Committee fight on Friday afternoon, using their morning meeting to argue over who has the best external legal advice and who gets to call the shots over committee business.

The Civic Party's Dennis Kwok continued to preside over affairs, as the committee once again failed to get down to the stated business of electing a chairperson.

Instead, lawmakers debated whether the DAB's Starry Lee, as last year's chairwoman, has the authority to chair the committee regardless of a new election so that she can help clear up a backlog of work, including a bill to outlaw disrespect for the national anthem.

Both sides pointed to external legal advice to back up their claims as to who is allowed to preside over House Committee meetings.

The pan-dems' advice, which is that Lee cannot take control and move on to matters other than the election, mirrors that of Legco's in-house legal team.

But the pro-establishment camp dismissed the outside legal opinion, saying it's biased being as it was provided by a team led by Bar Association chairman Philip Dykes, and pro-democracy legal scholar Johannes Chan.

The pro-democracy camp, who used crowdfunding to pay for their legal advice, blasted their rivals for using taxpayers' money to engage senior counsels who backed up the claim that Lee can replace Kwok to direct the meetings.

Lee has said she will chair the next House Committee meeting, at 2.30pm on Friday, and they will discuss which legal advice to follow.

But before the morning session ended, Kwok ruled that he would be presiding over the next meeting and the first matter on the agenda, once again, would be the election of a chairperson.

Both sides fear trouble at the meeting.

Kwok said he doesn't want to see anyone getting hurt, and he urged Legco security staff to exercise restraint.

Lee said she hopes there won't be any brawls. "I would like to urge all members to stay calm," she said.

Legco staff were making preparations by removing chairs and other items from a corridor outside the meeting venue, "to make more space".