The following is issued on behalf of the Legislative Council Secretariat:

     Following is the remarks by the President of the Legislative Council (LegCo), Mr Andrew Leung, on invoking Rule 92 of the Rules of Procedure (RoP) to deal with the delay in the election of the LegCo House Committee (HC) Chairman at a media briefing at the LegCo Complex today (May 15):

     I have invited representatives of Members belonging to different political affiliations and parties to have a meeting this morning with a view to resolving the current impasse of HC. Unfortunately, pan-democratic Members did not attend.

     As President, I have the responsibility to protect the Legislature and ensure that LegCo functions orderly. Over the past six months, I have attempted in different ways to help and hope HC could solve the impasse by itself. As early as late-March, I sought legal advice from outside Senior Counsels Mr Benjamin Yu and Mr Jenkin Suen on the responsibility and powers of the incumbent HC Chairman.

     At the same time, I sought legal advice from Lord Pannick QC and Mr Anthony Chan of Counsel on what actions could be taken by me as President of the LegCo with reference to experience of overseas legislatures. I received the latter piece of legal advice this week.

     According to the Counsel's advice, the most effective solution for me is to invoke RoP 92 to introduce a new procedure for dealing with the current impasse in HC.

     I decided to specify Hon Chan Kin-por as the member presiding at the election of HC Chairman at a HC meeting to be held at 11am next Monday (May 18). When presiding at the election, Mr Chan shall proceed straight to balloting and shall not hear points of order or entertain any motion.

     Before deciding to invoke RoP 92, I have been hoping that HC could resolve (the impasse) by itself. Regrettably, the HC meeting held last Friday (May 8) presided by Hon Dennis Kwok failed to elect the Chairman and the afternoon meeting chaired by Hon Starry Lee had dealt with many outstanding items but the meeting proceeded in chaos and confrontations between Members.

     The inordinate delay in the election cannot be allowed. The present situation must be ended immediately.

     I must stress that my decision is made to address the exceptional difficulties. I appeal to Members to put aside political differences and elect the HC Chairman quickly.

Ends/Friday, May 15, 2020
Issued at HKT 14:53

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