Provisional Legislative Council

1992 electoral reforms When the Hong Kong Basic Law was promulgated on 4 April 1990, the National People's Congress (NPC) issued a decision on the same day on the formation of the first government and legislature of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The decision and the Basic Law envisioned the Legislative Council returned from the 1995 Hong Kong legislative election to continue operating until 1998, when the next legislative election would be due. The NPC decided that the first legislature was to be formed according to "principles of State sovereignty and smooth transition". This was possible only because the decision did not define the election committee and the functional constituency electorate. The electoral reform created nine functional constituencies that gave paid labourers voting rights and abolished voting by corporations, which could vote in the old functional constituencies. The Democratic Party boycotted the PLC and criticised it for being undemocratic, while politicians Tsang Yok-sing, Elsie Tu, Dominic Chan and Peggy Lam gained a seat. From 1 July 1997 to 1998, it sat at the then Legislative Council Building in Hong Kong. Council committees and the LegCo Secretariat sat at various locations, including: • Huaxia Art Centre – 1 Guanqiao Street in the Overseas Chinese Town in Nanshan District, Shenzhen from 22 February to 21 June 1997 • Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre Extension – 1 July 1997 The Council held 60 meetings, 17 motions and passed 13 bills introduced by the Chief Executive of Hong Kong. The Legco Secretariat offices were on the 3rd Floor of the Huaxia Art Centre. ==Organisation==

President of the Provisional Legislative Council The president of the PLC was Rita Fan, who later led the legislative council following the handover. Members Officers of the Provisional Legislative Council The only officer found in the records was for the Clerk, Pauline Ng Man-Wah. Immediately after the Provisional Legislative Council was disbanded, she became the clerk of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. She retired from this position on 28 August 2012. Standing committees • Finance Committee • Public Accounts Committee • Committee of Members' Interest == Legislative functions ==

The legislative functions of the PLC are described by the Preparatory Committee in 1996. == Proceedings ==

Meeting broadcast Sessions of the PLC were broadcast with assistance from the Shenzhen Television Station. == Legal status ==

The PLC is neither referred to in the Basic Law nor the Joint Declaration as their drafters assumed the last colonial legislative session would automatically become the Special Administrative Region's first legislature. The legality of the PLC was challenged in the case HKSAR v Ma Wai Kwan decided by the Court of Appeal on 29 July 1997. The defendants argued that the PLC was unlawful because it did not satisfy the Basic Law's definition of Hong Kong's legislature in Annex II. The court reasoned that since Article 19 of the Basic Law did not expand its judicial powers and that it had no power to review the validity of a sovereign act under colonial rule, it did not hold such power after the handover. Since China has a written constitution and that the Basic Law describes the relationship between Hong Kong and the central government unlike the colonial Letters Patent and the Royal Instructions, Chan questioned whether parliamentary supremacy still fully applies in Hong Kong after 1997. ==See also==