Lots Of Blaming But No Vote On Co-location Bill

A Legislative Council co meeting scrutinising the co-location bill for the Express Rail Terminus ended with much rancour but no vote on Thursday evening. That bill will allow mainland officers to enforce mainland laws at the West Kowloon Terminus of the cross-border express rail link

Legco President Andrew Leung adjourned the meeting after an hour's suspension - as he considered complaints from pan-democrats over scheduling.

The lawmakers were angry after Leung decided to conclude the debate and allow government officials to speak. The lawmakers complained that there were still members waiting for their turn. Leung had planned to put the bill to a vote that night.

The convenor of the pan democratic camp, Charles Mok, said the Legco President only had himself to blame: "He could have handled it much better by allowing the few remaining legislators who didn't have a chance to speak at the second reading stage.

"But unfortunately the President chose to do it the hard way, including unreasonably ejecting one of our pro-democracy pan-democratic members out of the Legco, creating a difficult situation for himself [and he] wasted at least an hour or an hour and half of everybody's - all the legislators - precious time. If he didn't create this situation for himself we might have voted on the second reading tonight already.

Andrew Leung said the pan-democrats were given ample time to speak but had been wasting time with quorum calls. He said he hopes all sides can find a way to move on with the vetting process next week.

Earlier lawmaker Chu Hoi-dick was ejected from the meeting when Transport Secretary Frank Chan was about to speak during the second reading of the high speed rail rink co-location bill.

The Legco President ordered Chu out, saying the Land Justice League legislator had been slamming the desk and disrupting proceedings.

Pro-democracy lawmakers were angry that the Legco president allowed officials to speak to conclude the debate, even though some lawmakers have not spoken yet. They argued that each lawmaker is entitled to speak once. Earlier they repeatedly made quorum calls in a continued bid to stall the legislation.

The house also voted down a bid by the opposition to adjourn the debate.