Legco finance committee chair cuts pan-democrat filibuster on bridge project: half of debate time wasted on ‘irrelevant issues’
Lawmaker Chan Kin-por said that of 30 hours of meetings, 15 were spent calling for quorum, citing procedural questions and scolding officials
Pro-government lawmaker Chan Kin-por, who chairs the Legislative Council finance committee, said he cut the pan-democrats’ filibuster against extra funding for a bridge linking Hong Kong, Macau and Zhuhai because much of the debate time had been spent on irrelevant questions.
Chan has been accused of acting in an “arbitrary” manner after he last week blocked pan-democrats’ filibuster by cutting the time for questions on the HK$5.4 billion extra funding request for the project. The funding request was approved amid chaos in Saturday’s meeting with four radicals trying to dash towards Chan’s seat in protest.
“Essentially they were not asking questions ...”
Chan said on Monday that he had the legal basis to cut the filibuster. He also said he had given enough time for debate, with a total of 30 hours of meetings held, but half of the time had been spent on “irrelevant” issues.
“The legislators had already asked many questions. But the most saddening thing is that 15 hours were used to call for a quorum, or to cite procedural questions, or even to scold officials,” Chan said during an RTHK talk show.
“Essentially they were not asking questions,” he said. “The questions asked were also repetitive and irrelevant.”
Chan also apologised for saying “yes” to other pro-government lawmakers moments before the funding request was taken to a vote. His move later led to accusations that he had violated his neutrality.
