Legco Agrees To Issue Guidelines To Oust James To

The Legislative Council’s House Committee has voted to issue a set of guidelines to a bills committee debating extradition laws, instructing them to remove Democrat James To from his role presiding over the discussions.

The vote came at the end of an ill-tempered four-and-a-half hour discussion that was adjourned multiple times as pan-democratic lawmakers protested over how the emergency meeting was conducted.

Several of them, including Claudia Mo, Gary Fan, Ted Hui and Wu Chi-wai, were ejected from the meeting.

Pro-government lawmakers hope the guidelines will see a senior member of their camp, Abraham Shek, take over from To, who they say has been using delaying tactics.

However Legco's legal advisers say it's up to the bills committee to decide how to interpret the guidelines.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, the convenor of the pan-democratic camp, Claudia Mo, stressed the guidelines are non-binding, and it is up to James To to decide what to do with it when the committee meets on Monday.

"It's not an order, it's not even a direction", Mo said.