Starry Lee Re-elected As House Committee Chief

The first meeting of the House Committee of the extended Legco re-elected DAB chair Starry Lee as it head, but not before the pan-democrats attempted to slow down the proceedings and angry exchanges between the two sides over this.

The pan-democrats kept nominating lawmakers from both sides, some of them repeatedly, and the nominees refusing to accept it.

Pro-Beijing lawmaker Ma Fung-kwok, who presided over the election, accused some councillors of abusing the nomination process and wasting the council's time.

Things got a bit heated when Democratic Party's Lam Cheuk-ting wanted to nominate pro-Beijing lawmaker Junius Ho.

Ho rejected it and said: “I’m declining this from a former low rank ICAC investigator”. This set off a storm of protests by pan-democrats who accused Ho of using insulting language.

Ma who was controlling the proceedings then rejected this complaint and said Ho was airing his subjective views but it wasn’t an insult.

This prompted some pan-dems to call Ma “low-ranking lawmaker presiding over this election”.

There were a few questionable ballot papers written with words like "SAVE 12", "51" – referring to the protest slogan ‘five demands, not one less” – and "low rank". Democratic Party Ted Hui wrote "SHAME" on his ballot and did not put it into the ballot box.

After things settled down, Lee was chosen as the committee head again and Ma as her deputy.