Protestors gathered outside the Legislative Council Building opposing to the Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Express Rail Link in January 2010.Five resigning democrat legislators at a rally on 27 January 2010.Leung Chun-ying attended Legislative Council Q&A session first time as Chief Executive on 16 July 2012.
15 October 2008: Annual policy address of the Chief Executive Donald Tsang. During the address, the League of Social Democrats legislator Wong Yuk-man hurled a banana in the direction of Donald Tsang.[2] The three LSD members were ejected from the chamber for the act.
18 December 2009 – 16 January 2010: Pro-democracy legislators filibustered against the financing for the constructions of the Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Express Rail Link by raising many questions on very specific issues, delaying the passing of the bill from 18 December 2009 to 16 January 2010.[3] On the evenings the meetings were held, the Legislative Council Building was surrounded by thousands of anti-high-speed rail protesters.
23—25 June 2010: The revised 2012 electoral reform package was passed with absolute majority supported by the Democratic Party in the LegCo after hours of hot debates. The resolution for the chief executive in 2012 from 800 to 1,200 members, won endorsement at 2.20pm on 24 June by the legislature by 46 votes to 13. Pan-democrats who supported the proposals included eight from the Democratic Party, Joseph Lee Kok-long and Frederick Fung of the ADPL.[4] James To, who had earlier expressed misgivings about giving his support, voted in favour.[4][5] The 'Amendment to method for forming the Hong Kong Legislative Council' was approved by LegCo at 13:30 on 25 June, with 46 votes in favour and 12 against. 'Longhair' Leung Kwok-hung was ejected from the chamber just prior to the vote.[6] Thousands of protestors from both for and against the proposal gathered outside of the LegCo building.
2—17 May 2012: Albert Chan and Wong Yuk-man of People Power submitted 1306 amendments altogether to the Legislative Council (Amendment) Bill 2012, by which the government attempted to forbid resigning lawmakers from participating in by-elections. Leung Kwok-hung of the League of Social Democrats and Andrew Cheng also participated in the filibustering. Miriam Lau of the Liberal Party carried out a 30-hour hunger strike to voice her opposition against such act of obstructionism and waste of public coffers. The legislative council carried on multiple overnight debates on the amendments with the support of the pro-Establishment camp. On morning of 17 May 2012, Jasper Tsang, President of the Legco adopt Article 92 of the Standing Order, which allows the president follow foreign parliament rules for unregulated behaviours to terminate the debate. In the end, all amendments were defeated and the Bill was passed.
Major legislation
Enacted
16 December 2009: Domestic Violence (Amendment) Bill 2009
Following the reform plan passed in June, the LegCo passed the Chief Executive (Amendment) Bill on 3 March 2011 and Legislative Council (Amendment) Bill on 5 March with the Democratic Party voted for the bill. The membership of the Election Committee to return the Chief Executive increased from 800 to 1,200, while the number of seats in the LegCo rose by 10 to 70. Five of the new seats, known as 'super lawmakers', would be in the district councils functional constituency, where 3.2million people would be eligible to vote.[7]
The 2010 by-election launched by the pro-democracy legislators was strongly criticised by the Beijing government. The government tried to plug the "loophole" by passing the vacancies on to runners-up in the previous election, which was strongly opposed by the legal experts as unconstitutional The pro-democracy camp was strongly opposed to the bill, as it was seen as depriving citizens of their political rights. At last, the government modified the bill to bar the resigning legislator from running again for six months. People Power legislators started the filibuster against it but the bill was passed after President Tsang Yok-sing halted the debate.
Wong Yuk-man (Kowloon West) and Albert Chan (New Territories West) – former chairman and one of the figureheads of the League of Social Democrats (LSD) left the Party on 23 January 2011 in disarray which left the LSD only one seat in the LegCo. On the same day, Wong and Chan formed a new group called People Power with the former supporters of the LSD.
Paul Chan (Accountancy) – resigned on 27 July 2012 to take up principal official post as the Secretary for Development. No by-election was held to fill his vacant seat as there was a pending general election.
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