President of the Legislative Council, Jasper Tsang, has announced various security measures ahead of the political reform resolution vote due to happen later this week.
From this Wednesday until Friday, LegCo will restrict the number of assistants to legislators as well as their access permissions. No more than five assistants will be allowed for each legislator and their movements will be restricted to the floor corresponding to their legislators. Interns and visitors to legislators will not be allowed during the period. Legislators who wish to have more than five assistants at work will have to submit their requests to the LegCo commission.
The Hong Kong government will also have to provide to LegCo a list of government officials entering the complex for work purposes. Facilities within LegCo, such as the cafeteria on the ground floor and coffee shop on the fifth floor will be closed.
The LegCo Commission met earlier today to discuss security measures with regards to the protests announced by various organisations this week. The Civil Human Rights Front said that they will hold gatherings in the evening throughout the week. Robert Chow, Convenor of the silent majority Hong Kong, have also announced that they will hold a pro-government rally outside LegCo in order to support the reform resolution.
Regarding concerns that police involvement in LegCo security may affect the independence of the legislature and the separation of powers, Tsang replied that LegCo secretariat is not equipped to deal with violent crowd protests. He added that the police force has the responsibility and capability to respond to the situation to maintain order in the surrounding area.
