Hong Kong Legislative Council leadership role puts opposing camps' ties to the test

Ties between the pro-establishment and pan-democratic camps in the Legislative Council are being put to a new test, with pan-democrat Ronny Tong Ka-wah's resignation leaving the deputy chairmanship of the next House Committee open for negotiation.

The roles of chairman and deputy chairman on Legco committees were decided largely based on negotiation in the past.

But when the current Legco term started in 2012, Beijing loyalists were less willing to compromise, saving more seats for themselves. Nevertheless, the House Committee is chaired by a loyalist while his deputy is a pan-democrat - an arrangement that has been in place since 1998.

This long-standing consensus ran into uncertainty yesterday over whether the pro-establishment camp would agree on a pan-democrat to succeed Tong.

Alan Leong Kah-kit, convenor of the pan-democrats' lunchbox meetings, said he had received a message that the Beijing loyalists had singled out two pan-democrats to be screened out.

"Tong conveyed a message from [House Committee chairman] Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen to me that the pro-establishment camp would definitely not accept Sin Chung-kai or Kenneth Leung … I do not know why," Leong said in response to a report that the duo had been blacklisted by their legislative rivals.

The pro-establishment camp had ruled out Cyd Ho Sau-lan from the deputy chairman role during negotiations in 2012.