Editing Cloture (section)

==Hong Kong==
The first cloture in [[Hong Kong]] was introduced in the [[Legislative Council of Hong Kong]] on 17 May 2012, by [[Tsang Yok-sing]] ([[President of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong]]), to abruptly halt [[filibuster]] during debate at the Committee of the Whole stage of the [[Legislative Council (Amendment) Bill 2012]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://rthk.hk/rthk/news/elocal/news.htm?elocal&20120517&56&841059 |title=Legco president sets vote deadline |date=17 May 2012 |publisher=RTHK |access-date=17 September 2012}}</ref> The motion to end debate was submitted by Council member Philip Wong Yu-hong some time after 4 am Hong Kong time, after a marathon session that lasted over 33 hours.  Wong stood up and suggested that legislatures in other countries have a procedure called "cloture motion", and suggested Council President should end debate immediately. 

President Tsang agreed and said that he considered ending debate even without Wong's suggestion because he would not allow debate to go on endlessly.  Cloture is not defined by any rule or precedent of the Legislative Council. Tsang made reference to Standing Order 92, which stated "In any matter not provided for in these Rules of Procedure, the practice and procedure to be followed in the Council shall be such as may be decided by the President who may, if he thinks fit, be guided by the practice and procedure of other legislatures".<ref>[http://www.legco.gov.hk/general/english/procedur/content/partn.htm#92 Procedure if Rules of Procedure do not Provide] The Legislative Council – Procedures</ref> 

Standing Order 92 therefore may implicitly give Council President discretion on whether he should or should not follow the cloture rules of other legislatures, but this is up to debate. Legislative Council President Tsang chose to end debate without calling for a cloture vote, which is questionable. Council member Leung Kwok-hung then stood up and said that he had never heard of cloture without a vote anywhere else and suggested there should have been a cloture vote.

Cloture was again invoked by Tsang Yok-sing on 13 May 2013 to halt debate of the 2013 Appropriation Bill.