Bolstered by strong support from the KMT's Central Standing Committee yesterday an alliance of opposition party lawmakers have decided to hold a provisional meeting on Jan. 30 to debate the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (核四).
"The continued dispute [over the plant] ... has influenced Taiwan's economic development and the government has had to spend billions of dollars in compensation for contracts not honored," said KMT legislative caucus leader Hong Yuh-chin (洪玉欽) yesterday.
"The KMT can't allow the DPP government to be ambiguous about this issue any longer," Hong added.
Some said that the DPP's strategy of ambiguity was a move to prolong the debate until the year end legislative elections.
"If the ruling party really had such a plan, we would force Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) to step down from his post by launching a no-confidence vote and also recalling President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁)," said People First Party legislative caucus spokesman Hwang Yih-jiau (黃義交).
Responding to the DPP for the first time yesterday, KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) accused the government of being "prejudiced" in its response to the constitutional ruling on the scrapping of the plant.
"The Council of Grand Justices has clearly indicated that the government's behavior was incompatible with the spirit of the Constitution.The ruling party should accept the final decision of the Legislative Yuan in the future," Lien said.
On Monday the council ruled that the Cabinet's decision to scrap the construction of the nuclear plant on Oct. 27 was flawed.
According to the Constitution, there are two ways an extraordinary meeting of the Legislative Yuan can be called between its formal sessions. One is that the president asks the speaker for such a meeting, the other is that one-fourth of lawmakers (56 of the total of 223) sign a motion to approve such a proposal.
Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), who is also a KMT vice chairman, approved the idea of holding a provisional meeting.
Both the Cabinet and the DPP were supportive of the announced provisional meeting but have refused to resume construction of the nuclear power plant for the time being as KMT high-ranking cadres have suggested.
Chang categorically denied allegations that the Executive Yuan is scheming to procrastinate over the dispute in order to try to put off resolving the issue until the legislative elections that are to be held at the end of the year.
However, Chang was unable to provide a precise answer as to whether Taipower (
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