Starry Lee Defends Noon Deadline For Committee

The chairwoman of the DAB party, Starry Lee, said on Monday that it's appropriate for the Legco secretariat to set a midday deadline for lawmakers to decide who should preside over the bills committee meeting that's looking at extradition laws.

The secretariat angered pan-democrats after he wrote to lawmakers to ask if they approved of House Committee guidelines for pro-establishment lawmaker Abraham Shek to take over from democrat James To.

The pro-government camp accuse Mr To of filibustering the previous two meetings.

Lee says she's notified the secretariat that she prefers Shek, and added that she expects this afternoon's meeting to be a heated one.

"I don’t want to have any violence or anything that is affecting our staff," Lee said.

She said she wanted the bills committee to start deliberating "because we are still focusing on the chairman election process".

Pro-democracy legislators said on Sunday that they were planning legal action against Legco's secretary general Kenneth Chen, accusing him of misconduct in public office by helping their rivals attempt to seize control of a bills committee looking at changes to extradition laws.

But Legco President Andrew Leung on Monday defended Chen's action, saying it was done according to the rules and said he supports the secretary's action.