}
RULES OF LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL-HONGKONG
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no and the result shall be declared by the President or Chairman, but any member may claim a division when the votes shall be taken by the Clerk asking each member separately how he desires to vote and recording the votes accordingly.
(3) In taking the division the names of all the unofficial members shall be called before the nanies or official titles of any of the official members. In both cases the names, or official titles as the case may be, shall be called in order, beginning with the senior member, provided that the President, or in any committee the Chairman, shall vote last.
(4) When a division is claimed either in Council or in any committee every member present shall, unless he expressly state that he declines to vote, record his vote either for the ayes or noes. The Clerk shall enter on the minutes the record of each member's vote and shall add a statement of the names of members who declined to vote.
(5) As soon as the Clerk has collected the votes the President, or in any com- mittee the Chairman, shall state the numbers voting for the ayes and the noes respectively and shall then declare the result of the division or give his casting vote as the case may be.
(6) If a member state that he voted in error or that his vote has been counted wrongly, he may claim to have his vote altered, provided that such request is made as soon as the President has announced the numbers and before he shall have declared the result of the division.
(7) A member shall not vote on any subject in which he has a direct personal pecuniary interest, but a motion to disallow a member's vote on this ground shall be made only as soon as the numbers of the members voting on the question shall have been declared. If the motion for the disallowance of a member's vote shall be agreed to, the President, or in committee the Chairman, shall direct the Clerk to correct the numbers voting in the division accordingly. In deciding whether a motion for the disallowance of a member's vote shall be proposed from the chair, the President, or, in any committee the Chairman, shall have regard to the character of the question upon which the division was taken and to the consideration whether the interest therein of the member whose vote is challenged is direct and pecuniary and not an interest in common with the rest of His Majesty's subjects and whether his vote was given on a matter of state policy.
25.-FIRST READING OF A BILL
(1) The mover of a bill, on moving the first reading thereof, shall state the object and intention of the measure and the reasons on which it is founded.
(2) After such motion has been seconded by another member, and has been adopted, the bill shall be read a first time. The President may address the Council on the first reading of a bill should he desire to do so, but no further discussion shall be permitted.
(3) Except as provided for in paragraph (2) of Standing Order 29, every bill. shall be published in the Gazette after having been read a first time and before it is read a second time.
26.-SECOND READING OF A BILL
When a motion for a second reading of a bill shall have been made and seconded, a debate may be taken only upon the general merits and principles of the bill.
(1)
27.-COMMITTEE STAGE OF A BILL
When a bill has been read the second time the Council may, at the same or any subsequent meeting, upon motion made and seconded, resolve itself into a
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