Two legislators of the Civic Party and three legislators of the League of Social Democrats finally submitted their resignation letters amid controversy Tuesday. The author believes that their resignation is unfortunate for the whole society because it will lead to enormous disputes on appropriations for the by-elections, amendment of the ordinance, and whether "referendum" and "uprising" breach the constitution and the Basic Law, etc. Whether one is willing to participate in this game or not, all citizens will definitely be trapped in a political swirl for a substantial period of time, not to mention the injection of serious uncertainties into the important issues concerning the economy and people's livelihood.

It is obvious that the Civic Party and the League of Social Democrats are playing a trick of resignation for their political purposes, and that they may be prone to resign again. Recently, the author proposed amending the Legislative Council Ordinance, hoping to plug the loopholes in irresponsible resignation of legislators.

There are two prongs in the author's amendment proposal. One is to repeal Section 14 of the Legislative Council Ordinance so that in the future no legislator may resign from office without justification. The other prong is a proposal that a legislator who, with no valid reason, is absent from meetings for three consecutive months without the consent of the President of the Legislative Council under Article 79(2) of the Basic Law, no longer be qualified for the office, and meanwhile also be disqualified from being nominated as a candidate or returned as an elected member in the same term.

Some legislators of the opposition camp objected that the author's proposed amendment violates the provisions of Article 26 of the Basic Law: "Permanent residents of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall have the right to vote and the right to stand for election in accordance with law". It is worth noting that "in accordance with law" stated in Article 26 is not without a clear meaning in the full context of the germane legislation. These words mean that the citizens' right to vote and right to stand for election are not totally unlimited. For example, there are age limits in Section 29, mental health condition limits in Section 31, and residence limits in Section 28. Another example is Section 39 of the Legislative Council Ordinance, which specifies that a person under bankruptcy shall not be allowed to run in an election for five years.

It is said that in case there are no appropriations for a by-election, there may be a vacancy in the office of the member, which may lead to a constitutional crisis. But the author thinks that Section 17 of the Legislative Council Ordinance clearly stipulates that "proceedings of the Legislative Council are not affected by vacancy in membership". It is the author's view that if there is any vacancy in membership, the Legislative Council can still operate normally so long as the members present are sufficient to form a quorum.

The proposed amendment bill is not offered to tackle the collective resignation scheme this round, but to prevent abuse of the existing loopholes in the resignation and by-election system in the immediate and foreseeable future.

The author is a member of the Legislative Council

(HK Edition 01/28/2010 page1)