Legislative Council (Amendment) Bill 2012

Legislative Council (Amendment) Ordinance 2012
Legislative Council of Hong Kong
An Ordinance to amend the Legislative Council Ordinance to impose a restriction on the nomination of candidates at a by-election of the Legislative Council.
Citation	Cap. 542 § 39
Enacted by	Legislative Council of Hong Kong
Date passed	1 June 2012
Legislative history
Bill published on	3 February 2012
Introduced by	Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Raymond Tam
First reading	8 February 2012
Second reading	16 May 2012
Third reading	1 June 2012

The Legislative Council (Amendment) Bill 2012 is a Bill of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. It is an amendment to the Legislative Council Ordinance Cap. 542 § 39 to disqualify a resigned member of the Legislative Council from participating in a subsequent by-election. The original proposal was to avoid by-elections but it sparked vast controversies in the community. The revised Bill restricts a resigned member of the Legislative Council from standing in any by-elections within six months.

In January 2010, five pro-democracy Legislative Council members from each of the five geographical constituencies resigned to trigger territory-wide by-elections for the purpose of instigating a so-called “referendum”. They stood in the by-elections and were all re-elected. The 2010 by-election launched by the pro-democracy legislators was strongly criticised by the Beijing government. As government claimed that "views received during the public consultation on the arrangements for filling vacancies in the LegCo indicate that more people consider that the phenomenon of Members resigning at will, triggering by-elections in which they seek to stand, is a mischief that needs to be addressed," the government therefore tried to change the electoral system to plug the "loophole".

In mid-May 2011, the government revealed its plan to do away with by-elections entirely. Unveiling the proposal, Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Stephen Lam cited the practice elsewhere: "In some countries where the proportional representation (PR) system is adopted, by-elections are not used to fill vacant seats arising mid-term." According to the plan published on 8 June 2011, a Legislative Council seat in any geographical constituency or one of the five newly created district council 'superconstituencies' vacated by the resignation or death of a legislator would be filled by a 'leapfrog' mechanism by the next best placed candidate at the previous election.

The consultation document was opposed by the pro-democracy camp, professionals and legal experts. The government tabled a bill to amend current legislation for by-elections for 13 July 2011. However, by late June, the bill's future looked in doubt when the Central Government Liaison Office suggested a re-think. On 28 June, the government revised its proposal stipulating replacement by an unsuccessful candidate on the same election ticket. Whilst pro-government legislators declared support for the revised plan in principle, Regina Ip stated that consultation would still be desirable. The government bowed to pressure and announced one week later that it would suspend reading of the bill for two months, pending consultations on the revised proposals.

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