Legislative Council in Brief

The date for the beginning of each term of office is specified by the Chief Executive in Council. This must be within 30 days after the date on which the results of the relevant general election are declared.

The date and time for holding the first meeting of each term of office of the Legislative Council are also specified by the Chief Executive, and such specified date and time must be within 14 days after the relevant term of office begins. The dates of Council meetings during the session are determined by the President of the Legislative Council.

No Member shall be present or vote at the election of the President of the Legislative Council; or attend or vote at a meeting of the Council or any committee, or exercise any other power or function of a Member, until the Member has made or subscribed an oath or affirmation.

The President of the Legislative Council is elected by and from among the Members. The election of the President which shall be conducted as soon as practicable after Members have made or subscribed an oath or affirmation shall be held before the first Council meeting of a term. Prior to the election of the President, a candidate for the office will present his or her platform and answer questions from Members at a special forum, which is not a Council meeting but is open to the public. The Member present who has the longest continuous service in the Council and is not nominated for the office of President presides at the special forum.

The Clerk to the Legislative Council shall be responsible for conducting the election of the President. A vote by secret ballot will be announced to commence if there are two or more valid nominations. The candidate who receives the highest number of votes is elected as the President. If two or more candidates receive the same highest number of votes, a second round of voting in respect of these candidates will be arranged. If again no one candidate obtains more votes than any other candidates, the Clerk shall draw lots to decide which of the candidates should be the President.

The President shall hold office until the Council dissolves at the end of the term or is dissolved under the Basic Law.

The Finance Committee and the House Committee each shall consist of not less than 50 members. All Members except the President may join the two committees in the beginning of a new term by a specified deadline respectively. A Member’s membership of the Finance Committee and the House Committee lasts for the whole term. For Panels, all Members except the President may join a maximum of six Panels in each session of a term by a specified deadline. The membership size of each Panel shall consist of not more than 20 members and a Member’s membership of a Panel lasts for one session. If the number of Members who have signified membership for a Panel in a session exceeds 20, the committee seats are to be allocated in accordance with the mechanism decided by the House Committee.

The chairmen and deputy chairmen of the Finance Committee, the House Committee and Panels are elected from among members of the respective committees. The elections of the chairmen and deputy chairmen for the first session of a term take place at the first meetings of the above committees respectively. The chairmen and deputy chairmen of the above committees shall hold offices until the commencement of the next session or the chairmen and deputy chairmen for the next session are elected, whichever is the later.

The Chairman of the House Committee shall be the President’s deputy. In the absence of the Chairman of the House Committee or when, in his or her opinion, he or she is unable to act, the Deputy Chairman of the House Committee shall act as the President’s deputy.

Members of the Public Accounts Committee and the Committee on Rules of Procedure are appointed by the President in accordance with an election procedure determined by the House Committee. The membership sizes of the committees shall consist of 7 and 12 members respectively and their offices lasted for a term. After the election of members to that committee, the member who has the highest precedence shall be responsible for calling a meeting for the elections of the chairman and deputy chairman. If there is only one valid nomination received for each of the offices of chairman and deputy chairman, the members would be notified in writing of the election results, and the election meeting need not be held.

The Legislative Council Supervisory Committee ¹ and the Committee on Access to the Legislature’s Documents and Records shall consist of 13 members and not more than 13 members respectively. The President and the Chairman of the House Committee are respectively the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Committees. Besides, the Deputy Chairman of the House Committee is a member of the Committee. The other members are elected in such manner as the House Committee may determine. The term of office of the elected members of the Legislative Council Supervisory Committee is the whole term of the Council, while the term of office of the elected members of the Committee on Access to the Legislature’s Documents and Records is one year or until the next election of members, whichever is the earlier.

Every Member must furnish particulars of his or her registrable interests as stipulated in the Rules of Procedure of the Legislative Council to the Clerk to the Legislative Council in a form approved by the President before the first meeting of each term. The Clerk shall cause those particulars to be entered in a Register of Members’ Interests (“the Register”), which is made available for public inspection on the Legislative Council Website.

The main purpose of the Register is to provide information on the pecuniary interests or other material benefits received by a Member which might reasonably be thought by others to influence his or her actions, speeches or votes in the Council, or actions taken in his or her capacity as a Member.

Fixed seating in the Chamber is necessary for the use of electronic voting system for the purpose of a division at meetings. The principle adopted in the allocation of seats in the Chamber is that Members in larger groups will have priority in selecting the block of seats over those in smaller groups and individual Members. For Members with the same group size, lots will be drawn to determine their relative priority. Members within the same group will determine among themselves the seats allocated to the group. For Members not belonging to any group, lots will be drawn to determine their relative priority in selecting seats.