the written consent of the Chief Executive.
These restrictions would appear to prevent an individual member introducing a bill amending the provisions for the election of the Chief Executive or for full direct elections to the Legislature even in the circumstances envisaged in the Basic Law itself. The final stages of the drafting of the Basic Law in the winter of 1989/90 also produced a bizarre variation of the voting procedures for bills; whereas government bills require only a simple majority in the Legislature, motions, bills and amendments introduced by individual members will require a simple majority in each of two groups of the membership, the one comprised of representatives of functional constituencies, the other comprised of the directly elected members and those elected by the Election Committee [55]
31.
it or
Even within the area where the Legislature may take an initiative, the Executive has substantial powers.. The Chief Executive may return a bill passed by the Legislature if he considers it not compatible with the overall interests of the SAR; if a bill which has been returned is passed again by two thirds of all the members the Chief Executive must either sign and promulgate dissolve the Legislature. He may also dissolve the Legislature if it refuses to pass a "budget" or "any other important" government bill (which would make an intriguing justiciable isue), and, if he does so, he may provide himself with provisional appropriations on the basis of the previous fiscal year. The Chief Executive does not put
his own term of office at risk when he dissolves the Legislature and the only restrictions on his power to do so in the circumstances set out above are the requirements to have prior consultations with the Executive Council and,
30 31