Legco Rivals Dig In As Fugitive Panel Fight Looms

Confusion continued to reign on Friday as Legco's rival camps geared up for a showdown over control of a bills committee on extradition laws, with both sides claiming to have the right to preside over the panel's next meeting.

Pro-Beijing councillor Abraham Shek said he did not expect any chaotic scenes at the meeting on Saturday morning, adding he was confident that everything that came to pass would be both lawful and within Legco's regulations.

But while Legco officials had announced on Monday that Shek is to preside over the meeting, the Democratic Party's James To refused to concede that he had been ousted from the role.

Now adamant that he has been elected chairman of the committee, he slated a 9am meeting to coincide with the session announced by Shek.

Members of the pro-democracy camp were reportedly planning to spend Friday night camped out in the conference room where the meeting is expected to take place, as well as in a second room chosen as a back-up venue, to ensure that To can take his place on the podium.

There was a fresh twist to the drama on Friday afternoon when a circular, apparently issued by the council's administrative wing, stated that the most senior lawmaker present would preside over the proceedings. In terms of experience in Legco, this would be To rather than Shek.

However, the circular was contradicted by another issued by the Legco secretariat via email stating definitively that Shek will be in charge.

To told reporters that he would not rush into calling the police if he was prevented from chairing Saturday's meeting and he would first warn anyone blocking him from the chairman's seat that they were breaking the law.

"Of course, I will record the event and hopefully other colleagues will videotape the event so that I can have sufficient evidence to report, if needed, to the relevant authorities later," To said.

The Legco secretariat-arranged switch in presiding lawmakers followed a move by the House Committee to issue guidelines calling for the change, in response to filibustering by the pan-dems. Members of the bills committee later voted 36-24 in writing to back the move.

The filibustering by the pro-democracy camp comes as pressure mounts on the Carrie Lam administration to withdraw the fugitives bill, with various sectors expressing concerns about extraditions to the mainland under the new legislation.

The government says the law changes are needed to plug a loophole in existing legislation, and to send a Hong Kong man to Taiwan to face trial over the murder of his girlfriend there last year.

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