HONG KONG – Veteran lawmaker Starry Lee Wai-king was elected president of the eighth-term Legislative Council (LegCo) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in a tight race on Thursday.
Lee, 51, bagged 47 votes, while Ronick Chan Chun-ying, 64, got 42 votes during the election held after a special forum at the Legislative Council Complex.
She outlined that she will focus on ensuring the LegCo will better integrate with the broader national development agenda, inviting policy bureaux to brief legislators at various stages of policy-making, and building a legislature where all legislators can leverage their strengths.
She will take over from Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen, who decided not to seek re-election after concluding his nine-year tenure.
The presidential contest was between Lee from the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), who is also the city's sole delegate to the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, and Chan from the financial sector and a deputy to the NPC.
During the two-hour special forum preceding the election, 21 lawmakers proposed questions on issues such as how to unite lawmakers with different backgrounds and enhance communication between the executive and legislative sides.
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DAB chairman Gary Chan Hak-kan, the most senior legislator not nominated as a candidate, chaired the forum.
The voting was conducted by secret ballot, and the media had to leave the press gallery and photography booth to ensure lawmakers’ voting intentions were not recorded.
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According to Article 71 of the Basic Law, the LegCo president is elected by and from among LegCo members, and is responsible for the presiding, administrative, and ceremonial roles, as well as ensuring the smooth conduct of LegCo meetings.
The president should be a Chinese resident of not less than 40 years of age, who is a permanent resident of the HKSAR with no right of abode in any foreign country and has ordinarily resided in Hong Kong for a continuous period of not less than 20 years.
The new president will serve a four-year term, taking the helm of the eighth LegCo, whose 90 members began their terms on Jan 1 following the Dec 7 general election last year.
As the nomination period closed at 5 pm on Jan 2, the office of the Clerk to LegCo received the two valid nominations – of Lee and Chan’s.
Lee joined the city’s legislative body in 2008 and has since been re-elected four times, while Chan was first elected in 2016 to represent the financial sector.
Contact the writer at atlasshao@chinadailyhk.com
