6th Legislative Council of Hong Kong

6th Legislative Council of Hong Kong
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Overview
Jurisdiction	Hong Kong
Meeting place	Legislative Council Complex
Term	1 October 2016 – 30 September 2020
Website	legco.gov.hk/
Members	70 members
President	Andrew Leung (BPA)
Party control	Pro-Beijing camp

The Sixth Legislative Council of Hong Kong is the current meeting of the legislative branch of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government. The term of the session is from 1 October 2016 to 30 September 2020. The session consists of the new total of 70 seats in LegCo, with 35 members elected in geographical constituencies through geographical constituency direct elections, and 35 members in functional constituencies. The membership is based on the 2016 Legislative Council election.

The pro-Beijing camp remained the majority of the legislature with the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong as the largest party. The anti-establishment camp, including the traditional pan-democrats and newly emerging localists secured the majority in the geographical constituencies and the one-third crucial minority which allowed them veto any government's proposal on constitutional reform. Notable new members include the post-Occupy activists, Demosisto's Nathan Law, 23, being the youngest member to be elected and Youngspiration's Yau Wai-ching, 25, being the youngest woman to be elected. Other new members include Eddie Chu, Lau Siu-lai, Baggio Leung, Eunice Yung and Junius Ho.

An unprecedented oath-taking controversy broke out at the inauguration of the council. The Leung Chun-ying authorities asked the court to disqualify Baggio Leung and Yau Wai-ching after they inserted their own words into the oaths of office and mispronounced "China". The National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) controversially interpreted Article 104 of Hong Kong Basic Law, effectively adding retrospective regulations of the format of oath-taking of public offices in Hong Kong. After two Younspiration members were disqualified by the court, Leung's authorities pressed charges against Leung Kwok-hung, Nathan Law, Lau Siu-lai and Yiu Chung-yim, and the four pro-democracy members were disqualified as a result. This brought a historical low of pan-democrats' seats of the council, losing control of the geographical constituencies.

Major events

2016–17

The pro-Beijing legislators staged a walkout on 19 October to force adjournment in order to block the Youngspiration legislators to retake the oaths.

• 12 October 2016: In the first meeting of the session, all members took their oaths while three members, Youngspiration's Baggio Leung and Yau Wai-ching and pan-democrat Edward Yiu who inserted their own words into the official script had their oaths rejected by the Legislative Council Secretariat, but 11 others add their own wording and face no repercussions. Leung and Yau were criticised for pronouncing China as "Chee-na", the derogatory pronunciation used during the Second Sino-Japanese War and mispronouncing "People’s Republic of China" as "people’s re-fucking of Chee-na". After the oaths, the second most senior member Leung Yiu-chung of the Neighbourhood and Worker's Service Centre chaired the election of the President of the Legislative Council. To protest the Legislative Council secretariat's decision to disallow the three members to enter the chamber, Leung gave up the role amid calls from his colleagues to postpone the election due to the dispute over the British nationality of the pro-Beijing nominee Andrew Leung of the Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong (BPA). Instead, Abraham Shek of the BPA who replaced Leung Yiu-chung pushed the election ahead. The pan-democrats and localists tore up their ballot papers and exited the meeting room before the vote. As a result, Andrew Leung received 38 votes against pro-democrat nominee James To's zero with three blank ballots.^[1]
• 19 October 2016: In the second meeting of the session when five members retook their oaths, the pro-Beijing camp staged a walkout to force the meeting to be adjourned for the first time in the session to protest the two Youngspiration legislators refusal to apologise for their "insulting" oaths last week before Yau and Leung, as well as Lau Siu-lai were to retake their oaths.^[2]
• 26 October 2016: In the third general meeting, Legislative Council President Andrew Leung adjourned the meeting after the three members, two Youngspiration legislators he disallowed from joining the meeting as he decided to delay their oath-retaking but were escorted by the pan-democracy legislators into the chamber, and Civic Passion's Cheng Chung-tai who shouted at Leung for his decision, refused to leave the chamber.

Major legislation

Composition

Up to 11 March 2018:

Graphical representation of the Legislative Council

Legislative Council membership since 22 March 2018

Legislative Council division by caucus since 22 March 2018

Current Legislative Council of Hong Kong seat composition by party.

Leadership

Office	Party	Officer		Constituency	Since
President	BPA		Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen	Industrial (First)	2016

List of members

The following table is a list of LegCo members elected on 4 September 2016 in the order of precedence.

Members who did not serve throughout the term are italicised. New members elected since the general election are noted at the bottom of the page.

Key to changes since legislative election:

^a = change in party allegiance

^b = by-election

By-election

• 11 March 2018, by-election for Hong Kong Island, Kowloon West, New Territories East and Architectural, Surveying, Planning and Landscape was held. Independent democrat Au Nok-hin, Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) Vincent Cheng, Neo Democrats' Gary Fan and pro-Beijing independent Tony Tse were the winners of the respective constituencies.

Other changes

Committees

• House Committee— Chair: Starry Lee
  • Parliamentary Liaison Subcommittee— Chair: Ip Kin-yuen
• Finance Committee— Chair: Chan Kin-por
  • Establishment Subcommittee— Chair: Regina Ip
  • Public Works Subcommittee— Chair: Lo Wai-kwok
• Public Accounts Committee— Chair: Abraham Shek
• Committee on Members' Interests— Chair: Yiu Si-wing
• Committee on Rules of Procedure— Chair: Paul Tse

See also

• Hong Kong legislative election, 2016
• Hong Kong by-election, 2018
• Hong Kong LegCo members' oath-taking controversy

References