The pan-green and pan-blue camps will resume their fight in the legislature today over how legislative reforms are to proceed.
An earlier consensus reached by the legislature's Constitutional Amendment Committee said that all nine amendments should be reviewed by the committee before proceeding to the second and third readings and then to the National Assembly.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The National Assembly convenes only when constitutional reforms or national boundary changes have been passed by the legislature by a three-quarters majority or when a move to impeach the president or vice president has been passed by a two-thirds majority.
Determined to pass before the presidential election the constitutional amendment to halve the number of legislative seats, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) caucuses said yesterday that they are set to propose a change to today's legislative agenda.
They would like to see an additional plenary meeting on March 18 for the second and third reading of the constitutional revision to halve the number of seats.
Although the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) caucuses said they welcome the plan, they want to bundle the seat-reduction plan with eight other constitutional changes.
The Constitutional Amendment Committee approved during its first preliminary review session on Wednesday reducing the number of seats from 225 to 113 by 2008 and to lengthen legislative terms from three years to four.
They also agreed to change the way legislators are chosen from the current multi-member district, one-vote electoral system to the single-member district, two-vote system.
The remaining eight constitutional amendment issues include adjusting the terms of Control Yuan members, lowering the voting age and revoking compulsory military service.
DPP caucus leader Tsai Huang-liang (
"I hope they mean it this time when they pledge to push for legislative reforms. We'd really hate to see them boycott the initiative again," Huang said.
Huang said it would make sense to push through the constitutional amendments on which the rival camps agree and continue to negotiate over those they do not.
TSU caucus leader Chen Chien-ming (
"The only explanation I can think of is that they want to stall the process of [passing] constitutional amendments as long as possible and make legislative reform difficult for everyone," he said.
KMT caucus leader Liao Feng-te (
PFP caucus leader Hsieh Chang-chieh (
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