Newly elected lawmaker Alvin Yeung Ngok-kiu was angered by the decision that he would only be allowed seven minutes to question the additional funding of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link at a Legislative Council meeting on Friday afternoon.
Yeung was elected at the end of last month, and was not a member of the Finance Committee during previous debates over the additional HK$19.6 billion funding for the project.
Previously, the committee’s acting chairman Chan Kam-lam has cut short lawmakers’ speaking time when asking questions.
Yeung sent a letter to the committee’s chairman Chan Kin-por – who does not chair the meetings on the project due to potential conflicts of interest – on Tuesday demanding more time for questions.
Chan Kam-lam replied in a letter to Yeung on Friday that he would be allowed to ask questions, after committee members decide on the 36 motions on the project which were considered directly related to the project by Chan. Pan-democracy lawmakers originally put forward 1,262 motions.
“After the committee finishes handling the related motions, and before the committee votes on the subject, considering that you did not have the opportunity to ask questions or express opinions, I will use discretion to allow you to ask questions on the subject for around seven minutes, including [time for] the government’s reply.”
In response, Yeung posted on his Facebook account that he was “angered”.
“Only seven minutes for questions and answers for a huge [project costing] HK$10 billion?” he asked.
