No Chair Yet, Pro-govt Side Want James To Removed

Pro-government lawmakers said on Tuesday that they had written to Legco's house committee urging it to rule that Abraham Shek should preside over the next meeting of a bills committee looking at extradition law changes instead of the opposition's James To, after the panel failed to elect a chair after two meetings.

The committee met for a second time on Tuesday with the Democratic Party's To, as the most senior lawmaker, in charge. But members failed to elect a chairman for the panel to start its work after renewed filibustering.

A joint-convenor of the pro-Beijing camp, Martin Liao, said they were extremely disappointed with Tuesday's proceedings and were sending a letter to house committee chairwoman Starry Lee about the issue.

He said the rules only state that the first meeting of the bills committee has to be chaired by the most senior member present and the house committee can now choose somebody else, for example, the most senior member of the pro-Beijing camp, Abraham Shek.

Tuesday's meeting was mostly taken up with discussions relating to procedures.

At one point, To adjourned the meeting for 15 minutes to check with Legco's legal adviser whether he had a conflict of interest in leading the meeting.

This came about half an hour before the meeting ended, after To's interest in the matter and his profession as a lawyer were called into question by Civic Passion's Cheng Chung-tai.

But To said he wasn't dealing with any cases involving fugitive offenders and his legal firm partner doesn't notify him of case details when he accepts a brief.

Earlier in the meeting, To had given lawmakers two minutes each to raise any complaints about last week's meeting, which the opposition said was arranged in haste.

Speaking after this week's meeting ended, pro-establishment lawmaker Paul Tse – who is tipped to head the vetting panel – described the failure to elect a chairman as “unprecedented”.

Tse said the house committee members have to decide what can be done to remedy the situation.

But the pan-democrats defended the proceedings, saying their aim was to stall an “evil” law.

"We are very convinced that the government must at least shelve the entire controversy and respond to the demands of 130,000 Hong Kong people who took to the street," said the camp's convenor Claudia Mo.

She said the opposition will do everything in their power to stop the law being passed.

Speaking later, Security Secretary John Lee appeared to suggest that the government was opposed to any move to bypass the bills committee by putting the legislation directly to the full council.

He said the bills committee is part of the "normal legislative process" and this is the most suitable place to debate the bill because officials can explain the legal considerations behind it and the aim of the legislation.

Lee said there should be enough time to vet the bill if lawmakers are serious about doing so, as there are around two and a half months left before Legco breaks for its summer recess.

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