HK Legco president Jasper Tsang slashes number of budget amendments from 2,168 to 407

Legislative Council president Jasper Tsang Yok-sing has slashed a large portion of lawmakers’ amendments to this year’s budget, reducing the number from 2,168 to just 407.

Tsang said he anticipated the debate on the Appropriation Bill to require around 60 hours, and added that he expected lawmakers to start voting on the government blueprint on May 11.

The majority of the amendments this year came from three radical pan-democrats – People Power’s Albert Chan Wai-yip and Raymond Chan Chi-chuen, and League of Social Democrats’ “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung.

The trio earlier vowed to filibuster the Appropriation Bill, which lawmakers began debating last Wednesday, in protest against what they perceived to be a budget which neglected low-income earners in the city.

They also demanded that the government implement a universal pension scheme.

Of the 1,503 amendments put forward by Leung, Tsang approved 160. Of the 460 moved by the People Power duo, 143 were accepted. Tsang also approved 35 amendments from independent lawmaker Raymond Wong Yuk-man. As for the amendments moved by 12 other lawmakers, Tsang approved all but two, which were rejected due to technical errors.

Speaking to the press on Tuesday, the Legco president said that while the number of amendments he approved this year was around a third fewer than last year, the amount of time he had allocated for the debate was the same.

Tsang also said he understood some lawmakers were “disappointed and dissatisfied” with his decision.

“But to ensure the smooth running of the legislature, there’s a need for me [to reduce the number of amendments],” Tsang said.

In considering how many amendments to admit for lawmakers to debate, the Legco president said he relied on rule 57(4)(d) of the legislature’s rules of procedure, which stipulates that amendments deemed frivolous or meaningless cannot be moved.

Tsang added that another factor he took into account was the number of government bills that Legco needed to process – 22 in total – within what he call “a limited number of sittings” left before the end of the legislative year.

(SCMP)