KMT backing off from showdown

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was in disarray yesterday over whether to take a stand on rejecting two grand justice nominees.

KMT legislative whip Lee Chia-chin (李嘉進) said at a press conference that his party was considering rejecting the two nominees for the Council of Grand Justices because they were not qualified.

"The KMT is considering rejecting two grand justice nominees, Lin Tsu-yi (林子儀) and Hsu Yu-hsiou (許玉秀), since they cannot conform to the requirement of having at least 10 years teaching experience," Lee said.

Lee said that a KMT panel examining the nominees was considering presenting a proposal to the legislature to remove Lin and Hsu from the list of nominees before the confirmation vote next week.

The proposal must be made before Tuesday, when the Legislative Yuan needs to wrap up the confirmation. The confirmation process was delayed by two months after pan-blue lawmakers demanded more time to consider the nominees.

But after a meeting of KMT legislators later in the day, Lee's colleagues said that a majority favored a truce over political confrontation regarding Lin and Hsu's nomination.

"Most attendants agreed that the KMT should follow public opinion and avoid provoking a legislative showdown on such an issue," KMT Legislator Lee Chuan-chiao (李全教) said.

He persuaded his colleagues to conclude yesterday's meeting without demanding the Presidential Office withdraw the two nominees.

The KMT caucus will agree to Lin and Hsu even though "their nomination was indeed arguable," Lee said.

The three KMT lawmakers leading the move to reject the two nominees -- Lee Chia-chin, Liao Fung-te (廖風德) and the party's nominee examination panel convener Kao Yu-jen (高育仁) -- had no comment after Lee Chuan-chiao's announcement.

Last night, Legislative Yuan speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) held cross-party negotiations at which an agreement was reached for the two nominees to be accepted only after the Presidential Office submits a clarification of their qualifications.

The controversy over Lin and Hsu centers on the lack of laws regarding the qualifications of grand justices.

For Control Yuan members, for example, the experience requirement is calculated on the day before they take office.

If the same rules were applied to Lin and Hsu, they would be qualified, as they would both have been teaching for more than 10 years by their inauguration on Oct. 3.

Hsu Yu-hsiou, a professor of law at National Chengchi University, said legal practitioners and scholars reached a consensus over the dispute that the grand justice's seniority should follow the same rules as for Control Yuan members.

"But it is the lawmakers' jurisdiction to carry out the final confirmation," she said outside the legislature yesterday afternoon.

In other news, a group of Taiwan Solidarity Union lawmakers visited the Judicial Yuan yesterday and petitioned for a constitutional interpretation on the legality of presidential tickets combining candidates from different parties.

The petition, which targets the pan-blue candidates KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), argued that a multiparty ticket could conflict with the Constitution.

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