***********************************************
Following is a transcript of remarks by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Henry Tang, at a media session at the Central Government Offices today (July 4):
Chief Secretary for Administration: Last January, five Legislative Council Members resigned to trigger a by-election, instigating a so-called "referendum". The incident led to grave concern in the community.
The public cannot accept that legislators intentionally resign and then stand in the ensuing by-election, unnecessarily affecting the operation of the Legislative Council. There is wide public opinion that this loophole should be plugged to prevent occurrence of similar incidents in the future. More than half of the Legislative Council Members agree that the legislation should be amended.
In the past one and a half years, various proposals for plugging this loophole have been put forward and discussed in the community. Since the Government put forward its proposal nearly two months ago, there has been wide discussion both within and outside the legislature.
After listening to the views, the Government put forward a revised proposal last week. Under this revised proposal, from the fifth term Legislative Council in 2012 onwards, if a vacancy arises in the geographical constituency or the new District Council functional constituency, the vacancy will first be filled by a candidate on the same list of the Member who has vacated his seat. This arrangement is constitutional and legal. Similar arrangements have also been adopted in other democratic countries.
If there is no candidate on the list who could or is willing to fill this vacancy, the fallback arrangement is to fill the vacancy by the candidate on the list which obtained the largest remaining votes at the general election. If the vacancy could not be filled by the above methods, a by-election will be held to fill this vacancy.
The proposed revision has addressed much of the opinion expressed by the community over the replacement mechanism. However, there are still quite some views that if the vacancy arises because the Member has died or is seriously ill, instead of filling the vacancy by a candidate on the same list as the vacating Member, a by-election should continue to be held to fill this vacancy. At the meeting of the Bills Committee this morning, a number of Members raised this proposal again.
The Committee also suggested that we need more time to consider Members' suggestions and listen to public views. We have therefore decided that :
* First, we will be not resuming second reading debate and the voting of the 2011 Legislative Council (Amendment) Bill on July 13.
* Secondly, on the basis of the amendment bill put forward by the Government, we will conduct a public consultation on the proposal for about two months from July to September in order to listen further to the views of the public.
* Thirdly, after considering fully the views received during the public consultation, we will resume and complete the legislative exercise within the 2011-12 legislative session.
I would like to thank the members of the Bills Committee for its constructive approach in giving views and suggestions. There is a strong consensus in the community that we need to plug the loophole. The Government and LegCo have a shared responsibility to respond to this concern. We hope today's decision will facilitate rational discussion and consensus building in the community.
Reporter: Earlier, you insisted the voting to go ahead and now you decided to delay it. Why do you u-turn? And what happens if people are still unhappy with the amendment?
Chief Secretary for Administration: We have decided to listen to the views of the Legislative Council Bills Committee members in the meeting this morning. We feel that the original proposal is constitutional and legal as well as reasonable and rational. However, in view of the views that have been expressed in the Bills Committee, we agree that with a public consultation we will be able to make the proposals even better than what they are.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Monday, July 4, 2011
Issued at HKT 20:16
NNNN
Windows Media format
Real Media format