'More Chaos When House Committee Resumes On Monday'

Two pro-establishment legislators on Sunday said they expect there will again be chaotic scenes at the election of the House Committee chairperson on Monday.

After months of failure to elect a new chair, Legco President Andrew Leung invoked a rarely used power to remove the Civic Party's Dennis Kwok from presiding over the poll.

The procedure will now be overseen by the legislature's Finance Committee chairman Chan Kin-por, a pro-government councillor.

Liberal Party leader Felix Chung said he believes the three hours reserved for Monday's election will be used to carry every single protesting pro-democracy member out of the conference room.

Roundtable legislator Michael Tien agreed, saying he expected the opposition camp to put up a fight over the matter, and then be forcibly removed from the chamber. Tien said that's why three hours have been set aside for the election. He said otherwise it's just a 15-minute procedure.

DAB Chairwoman Starry Lee had said on Wednesday that there would be no Legco House Committee meeting last Friday to give both camps a chance to calm down, and to discuss the way forward.

Legco saw hours-long disturbances during the committee’s last meeting with Lee, who chaired the committee last year, taking control of the proceedings amid scuffles between lawmakers and security staff. Two opposition lawmakers were hospitalised after the chaos.

Lee has insisted that she has the authority to call special meetings of the committee to handle urgent items, which have piled up after the committee failed to elect a chairman since October.

But pan-democrats, who had disputed this and called the previous Friday’s meeting “illegal”, said Lee’s move of not holding a meeting last Friday was an abuse of her powers.