A consensus on constitutional amendments that would marginalize the National Assembly beginning May 20 was reached by the KMT and the DPP yesterday.
The deal would entail most of the functions of the Assembly being transferred to the Legislative Yuan.
Under the agreement, the Assembly would retain the power to propose the impeachment of the president and vice president, and vote on constitutional amendments. In both cases however, the initial proposals would have to be submitted by the Legislative Yuan.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
"From May 20, the National Assembly will maintain its title, but become a nominal, non-standing body," said Hong Yuh-chin (
KMT and DPP representatives agreed that deputies would be elected to the Assembly by proportional representation three months after an impeachment or constitutional reform is proposed.
The Assembly would meet for no more than one month on each occasion and would be disbanded as soon as the purpose of that meeting had been achieved.
How many deputies will be selected to serve the Assembly has not yet been decided.
Functions transferred to the Legislative Yuan include the right to elect the vice president when the office is vacant; initiating a proposal to recall the president or vice president; confirming Judicial Yuan, Examination Yuan and Control Yuan appointments after they have been forwarded by the president; and boundary changes.
After the reforms are made, the president will deliver his annual state-of-the-nation report to the Legislative Yuan, instead of the Assembly.
The Assembly will no longer have the power to initiate proposed amendments to the Constitution.
Both parties decided that an extraordinary National Assembly session will be convened by April 11 to process the reform, setting their sights on completing the amendments before the upcoming Assembly elections on May 6.
Chen Chin-te (陳金德), director-general of the DPP's caucus in the Assembly, said the DPP and KMT caucuses expected to push through the proposed amendments for a second reading by April 25, in order to finalize the amendments after a third reading and meet the May 6 deadline.
In future elections for the Assembly, Chen explained, the electorate would vote for a political party, as normal. This vote share would correspond with the number of deputies in the Assembly.
"Prospects for the reforms are very optimistic," Chen said, "But we have to race against time and each party needs to spend some time mobilizing its deputies to throw their support behind this."
Chen said the agreement, which took only three hours of negotiations, is consistent with public expectations.
Chen added the proposals should have no problem winning the support of the New Party, since they are very close to its stance of "maintaining the Assembly but not the deputies."
In response, New Party caucus leaders said they were pleased with the KMT's and DPP's moves to reform the Assembly, but felt there were still points that needed fine tuning.
Wang Kao-cheng (王高成), spoke-sman for the New Party caucus, said his party supported "freezing" the Assembly and said it was unnecessary for the Assembly to maintain any function at all.
"The power of referendum should be exercised by the people directly, so there is no need to waste any social costs on electing National Assembly deputies," Wang said.
However, Wang said his caucus would be flexible, for the present, so as not to upset the nation's political stability.
In addition, the New Party proposes expanding the existing conditions for impeaching the president to include "corruption and other irregularities."
NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT: An official said that Guan Guan’s comments had gone beyond the threshold of free speech, as she advocated for the destruction of the ROC China-born media influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China content that threatens national security, the National Immigration Agency said yesterday. Guan Guan has said many controversial things in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” while expressing hope for expedited “reunification.” The agency received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification last year. After investigating, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and account for her actions. Guan Guan appeared as required,
A Vietnamese migrant worker yesterday won NT$12 million (US$379,627) on a Lunar New Year scratch card in Kaohsiung as part of Taiwan Lottery Co’s (台灣彩券) “NT$12 Million Grand Fortune” (1200萬大吉利) game. The man was the first top-prize winner of the new game launched on Jan. 6 to mark the Lunar New Year. Three Vietnamese migrant workers visited a Taiwan Lottery shop on Xinyue Street in Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District (崗山), a store representative said. The player bought multiple tickets and, after winning nothing, held the final lottery ticket in one hand and rubbed the store’s statue of the Maitreya Buddha’s belly with the other,
‘NATO-PLUS’: ‘Our strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific are facing increasing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party,’ US Representative Rob Wittman said The US House of Representatives on Monday released its version of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes US$1.15 billion to support security cooperation with Taiwan. The omnibus act, covering US$1.2 trillion of spending, allocates US$1 billion for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative, as well as US$150 million for the replacement of defense articles and reimbursement of defense services provided to Taiwan. The fund allocations were based on the US National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026 that was passed by the US Congress last month and authorized up to US$1 billion to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency in support of the
CLASSIFIED BRIEFING: The ministry said the special budget focuses on building a comprehensive defense system and strengthening the domestic defense industry The Ministry of National Defense yesterday released information on seven categories of weapons systems to be procured under a stalled NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.57 billion) special defense budget, including precision artillery, long-range missiles, air defense anti-tank missiles and more than 200,000 uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs). The Executive Yuan approved a draft version of the budget on Nov. 27 last year and submitted it to the legislature for review. The legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee yesterday invited Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) to deliver a classified briefing and answer questions at a closed-door session. Koo said he hoped to provide lawmakers
RSS