Somewhat surprisingly, the pan-blue-controlled Legislative Yuan on Tuesday confirmed all 15 candidates for the Council of Grand Justices nominated by President Chen Shui-bian (
The smooth and peaceful confirmation process was in sharp contrast to the showdown over the confirmation of the Examination Yuan president and vice president in June last year. In that memorable event, both the pan-blue and pan-green camps threatened their members with disciplinary action if they disobeyed party orders when voting. While the pan-blue parties had people blocking the doors to the legislative chamber to prevent their members from voting -- out of fear that some might secretly vote in favor of confirmation -- the pan-green parties monitored their members to make sure that no one voted against confirmation. This time around both camps allowed their lawmakers to vote independently, based on their evaluation of each nominee's qualifications, although voting still largely followed party lines.
What exactly happened? In May, when the pan-blue camp voted to postpone the confirmation process over the objections of the Democratic Progressive Party, it appeared that another duel at the Legislative Yuan was inevitable. Over the summer, the opposition parties held several press conferences questioning the qualifications of the nominees. As late as last Saturday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative whip Lee Chia-chin (
rejecting two nominees as unqualified.
The most important factor behind the pan-blue camp's decision to back down was probably the upcoming presidential election. Polls have repeatedly shown that voters are sick and tired of political bickering and inter-party rivalry. Besides, the qualifications of the 15 nominees were largely uncontrotversial and each of them had, at most, only weak partisan affiliations. Since Chen had resisted demanding that the legislature hold a special session to confirm the nominees in early June, for the pan-blue parties to reject his choices or to turn the confirmation process into another circus would surely have repulsed the electorate, in particular moderate voters who could play a decisive role in the outcome of next year's election.
Legislative Yuan speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
The pan-blue parties can now try to deny DPP charges that they have been obstructing the implementation of Chen's policies. This is something that the DPP should watch out for as it rejoices over this apparent success in the legislature.
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