Legislative Council House Committee chair Starry Lee said on Tuesday that she has withdrawn an end-of-session motion for lawmakers to bid farewell to the council.

The valedictory motion debate was due to take place during a two-day meeting starting Wednesday, two days before the nomination period for December's Legco polls begins.

Lee said while the nomination period was announced months ago, recently lawmakers have had different ideas as to whether or not to press ahead with the motion.

She noted that some believe there is extremely fierce competition for the polls, so they were concerned the debate would lead to unfairness.

Others told her they wanted to spend more time focusing on election matters, while some councillors wanted to let the motion continue, she said.

Lee said after considering different factors, including views from stakeholders outside the chamber, she made the difficult decision to withdraw the motion for the sake of election fairness.

"Councillors can use different means to give reflections or their thoughts to the press or the people publicly," she told reporters.

"As far as what lawmakers would have said during the debate, I believe they can always express their views through different channels, this wasn't my concern. I didn't consider what they would have said."

When asked whether the withdrawal means the tradition of moving a valedictory motion should be scrapped, Lee said circumstances are different for each Legco term.

Her announcement came after 17 lawmakers, a number of them long-serving councillors, indicated their intention not to run again.

Some said they wanted to pass the torch to the younger generation.