Legislative Assembly (AL) President Ho Iat Seng said on Wednesday that he was confident that the bills which are being reviewed in the legislature’s standing committees can be resubmitted to the legislature’s plenum for their final article-by-article votes, by the time the legislature completes its current term later this year.
The city’s top lawmaker also said that if the business sector supports him in running the upcoming indirect legislative election, he will stand for re-election.
Ho, an indirectly-elected lawmaker representing the city’s business sector, is the sole Macau member of the elite Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) in Beijing.
Ho made the remarks while speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the legislature’s Chinese New Year media luncheon.
According to the legislature’s website, 14 bills are being reviewed in the legislature’s three standing committees. One of the 14 bills was jointly proposed by nine lawmakers – a rent control bill whose outline was passed in November 2015.
The legislature is slated to complete its current four-year term in October, when all the then still outstanding bills will have to be annulled. The legislature has its summer recess between the middle of August and the middle of October. Direct and indirect legislative elections customarily take place in September.
The exact date of the upcoming legislative elections is yet to be announced by the government.
Ho said the legislature aimed to finish the legislative procedures of all the 14 bills being reviewed in the six months left, bearing in mind that the legislative elections take place this year.
“I am confident that the 14 bills will be resubmitted [to the legislature’s plenum for their final article-by-article votes], as the three standing committees’ presidents are working hard towards finishing reviewing the bills in their committees,” Ho said.
(Macau News/The Macau Post Daily)
