Hong Kong’s pro-democracy camp has narrowly maintained one-third of the seats in the Legislative Council to hold onto its key veto power against any potential motions to disqualify lawmakers.

After the postponement of the Sept. 6 Legco election, the pro-democracy camp and its supporters have been debating whether to stay in the legislature that would be extended for a year. The pan-democrats commissioned a survey, with 14 electing to stay. Tanya Chan, Ray Chan and Eddie Chu chose to leave Legco after their terms ended.

There will be 21 opposition lawmakers staying, including those from the Professional Commons, localist Cheng Chung-tai and medical sector lawmaker Pierre Chan. The pro-Beijing camp will have 41 members, including President Andrew Leung.

Any government bills and funding requests, such as the legislation of a localized national security law under Article 23 of the Basic Law, remote voting and Lantau reclamation, could be passed with a simple majority.

The pan-democrats have also lost the majority in the geographical constituency, and are now unable to block bills and motions that need to be passed by both the geographical constituency and the functional constituency. It means they cannot block relevant items, but only delay them.

Any political reform bill or motion to disqualify lawmakers would require two-thirds of lawmakers attending a meeting to pass. Since the pro-democracy camp has 21 seats out of the remaining 62, they could block such bills and motions to pass. However, should one of the pan-democrats fail to attend a meeting, a political reform bill or disqualification motion could be passed.

Democratic Party lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting said he has been speaking to nominees that won the pro-democracy camp’s primary election in July, who had advocated for boycotting the extended legislature. Lam said he would listen and respect their opinions.

Lam said lawmakers have been hiring protesters as staff members and spending their salaries to support the movement, but he does not agree with the suggestion that lawmakers should act as a surrogate for primary election winners who do not have a seat. Lawmakers should take up responsibility to protest in the legislature in the coming year, he said.

Ventus Lau, who won the primary election and advocated for a boycott, said his proposal for a new platform for political discussion was made on the basis that the pan-democrats would boycott the legislature, so there was no point to discuss the platform any further. Lau said he would still work with the remaining pan-democrats, and hoped they would provide more resources to protesters.

Click here for Chinese version

---------------------------------

Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app: bit.ly/2yMMfQE

To download the latest version,

iOS: bit.ly/AD_iOS

Android: bit.ly/AD_android

Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play