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Legislature delays nominations

"According to today's decision, the legislature would only confirm the nomination of the grand justices in September."

Chiou I-jen, Presidential Office secretary-general

The Legislative Yuan voted 107 to 100 yesterday to postpone confirmation of the 15 nominees for the Council of Grand Justice until the next legislative session -- on the condition that the review process must be finished before Sept. 16.

"This session shall be extended to next Friday so a special legislative assembly can be held Thursday. However, the legislature will delay the agenda related to grand justice nominees' review and confirmation until the next session resumes on Sept. 5," said Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平).

Wang's announcement came after a fourth vote for a debate on the confirmation process and legislative schedule was decided in favor of the pan-blue alliance.

The legislature voted after several rounds of multi-party negotiations failed to reach a consensus on a schedule for confirming the 15 nominees.

The inter-party meeting on Thursday concluded that a full legislature should make the final decision by voting on two options -- one to finish the current session on June 6 and one to finish it on June 17, including a review of the nominees.

The legislature will use next week's extension to focus on budgetary bill reviews.

Ruling and opposition lawmakers had battled over setting a date for reviewing and voting on the justice nominations almost as soon as the Presidential Office announced the list on May 19.

Mobilization

The delivery of the nomination report to the Legislative Yuan on May 21 set off a tug of war.

Each legislative caucus ordered an all-out mobilization of their lawmakers for yesterday's votes.

There were also accusations that outside powers tried to manipulate independent legislators over for the confirmation vote.

KMT Legislator Liu Chung-hung (劉政鴻) and PFP Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) accused the Presidential Office of trying to persuade independent lawmakers to back the proposal to wrap up the nomination process by the end of the current session.

The DPP legislative caucus denied the accusation.

The independent alliance lawmakers, however, staged a walkout yesterday afternoon during the vote on the confirmation agenda to protest the political war of words over the justices' confirmation process.

In response to yesterday's vote, Presidential Office Secretary-General Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) said the lawmakers' decision would seriously damage the nation's constitutional order and trigger a constitutional crisis.

Chiou said President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) is considering asking the legislature to call an additional session to confirm the grand justice nominees, based on the presidential right granted by Article 69 of the Constitution.

President in a pickle

"According to today's decision, the legislature would only confirm the nomination of the grand justices in September," Chiou said.

"But if more than one-third of the nominees were to be turned down at that time, the president wouldn't have enough time to nominate new justices before the Council of the Grand Justices is scheduled to convene in October," he said.

According to the Constitution, there must be more than two-thirds of the total council members present for the Council of Grand Justices to convene.
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