The legislature's bill committee, formed to scrutinize amendments to the Chief Executive Election Ordinance (CEEO), yesterday kicked off with a pledge to steer clear of obstacles that may block the smooth by-election of a new chief executive (CE).

Tam Yiu-chung, backed by his own party, the Democratic Alliance for Betterment & Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), the Liberal Party (LP) and non-affiliated lawmakers, defeated Ronny Tong of Article 45 Concern Group by 29 to 18 votes to become committee chairman yesterday.

Howard Young of the LP also set back Tong's bid to become the vice-chairman by 29 to 16 votes.

The chairman, aided by the vice-chairman, is responsible for navigating committee deliberations to allow an amendment bill to the CEEO to be passed in time for a smooth by-election.

The election schedule is tight. While the law requires the by-election to take place on July 10, it also requires the nomination period to be no less than 14 days and the canvassing period no less than 21 days. This leaves barely a month for lawmakers to complete their task if the CE by-election is to be held as scheduled.

The amendment bill seeks to specify the new CE to be returned in the bypoll shall serve out the remainder of his predecessor's term. The CEEO's existing version is found to be unclear, though the legislative intent is clear in the Basic Law.

Tong, a strong critic of the SAR government's move to ask the State Council to request the country's top legislature to interpret the Basic Law regarding the tenure issue, said he could not give assurances that the legislation process could be completed in time for the bypoll were he to be elected the chairman.

"I cannot give you the guarantee. But it is clear that I do not intend to create barriers for the July 10 election," Tong said in reply to the DAB's Lau Kong-wah, who was concerned about opponents manipulating house rules to stretch the legislation process.

Tam said it would be important to lay a solid foundation for electing the new CE by passing the bill in time.

"I hope all fellow legislators can arrange their meetings properly so that we can move on to scrutinize the concerned bill smoothly and let the election be held as scheduled," Tam said before he was elected the chairman.

The DAB vice-chairman emphasized he would conduct meetings in a fair and balanced manner.

To ease hostilities, Tam exercised discretion soon after becoming the chairman to set the next meeting on April 21 after members failed to see eye-to-eye on April 19, a date proposed by the secretariat of the Legislative Council.

The changed date would enable members opposed to the bill to join a demonstration planned for April 19 without having to miss the next meeting.

The April 21 meeting would be closely followed by another meet-the-public session in the morning of April 23. If public response proves overwhelming, the session will extend into the afternoon.

Secretary for Constitutional Affairs, Stephen Lam, called on members to leave issues not as urgent as the CE term for the time being, promising that questions like the tenure of the Election Committee and the number of times that the new CE (to be elected in the by-poll) can seek re-election.

Lam said nominations for the July election must start in early June.

He disagreed with Lee Cheuk-yan of the Confederation of Trade Unions that interpretation of the Basic Law by the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) would undermine Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy.

The government's report to the State Council was made in the fundamental interest of Hong Kong. Furthermore, the NPCSC's power to interpret the Basic Law is enshrined in the mini constitution, Lam said.

(China Daily HK Edition April 15, 2005)