Pan-dems Hit Crowdfunding Target In A Few Hours

A crowdfunding drive by Legco's pan-democrats exceeded its target within hours on Tuesday, enabling the camp to seek their own legal advice on what action, if any, their rivals can take to circumvent filibustering of House Committee meetings.

Civic Party lawmaker Tanya Chan had announced the launch of the crowdfunding bid in the morning, with the aim to raise HK$240,000.

She said pro-democracy lawmakers would add HK$100,000 of their own money, to hire outside lawyers to look into the matter ahead of the next House Committee meetings this Friday.

The crowdfunding target was reached in about four hours.

A look at the contributions showed they mostly ranged from HK$100 to HK$1,000, with one person donating HK$777 - the number of votes Carrie Lam won from the Chief Executive election committee in 2017.

Chan posted on Facebook: "Thank you everyone for your support".

The crowdfunding page said any surplus funds will be shared between the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, which helps pay medical and legal expenses of arrested protesters, and the Justice Defence Fund.

Legco president Andrew Leung had announced on Monday that external legal advisers are of the view that former House Committee chairwoman Starry Lee from the DAB party has the authority to direct proceedings, being as pan-dem filibustering has prevented the election of a new chair for several months.

The pro-democracy camp says this contradicts Legco's own legal advisers who believe the election of a chairperson must come first and Lee can't move on to other business.