Negotiations on a recount were deadlocked yesterday after the pan-blue camp insisted the president issue an emergency decree to allow a recount to proceed.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said any recount would have to be the result of legal amendments.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
The pan-blue caucuses and the alliance of independent lawmakers backed Wang's request, while the green camp rejected the suggestion and insisted on amendments to legislation.
Wang said cross-party negotiations to amend the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Law (總統副總統選舉罷免法) would only take place this morning if the Central Election Commission (CEC) did not decide last night to proceed with a recount. As of press time, the CEC had not made a decision.
Earlier yesterday the DPP caucus put forward a proposal to amend the recall law to allow a partial or complete recount for instances when the gap between the two leading candidates in the election is less than one percent of total ballots. The amendment could be applied retroactively to Saturday's election.
DPP asked that the proposal be discussed in the legislature's Procedure Committee yesterday so that it could pass the committee stage and go to second and third reading in the afternoon.
"If the proposal can get through the committee at noon, then in the afternoon we can pass the amendment in the legislative sitting and have the president promulgate it immediately, DPP caucus leader Tsai Huang-liang (
"Then we can start the recount on Thursday at the earliest. This is the best way to proceed with a recount as demanded by the pan-blue camp," Tsai said.
The KMT and PFP caucuses already had a similar proposal waiting to be discussed by the committee, but the two caucuses yesterday opposed the DPP's proposal, saying the DPP was trying to delay the recount.
KMT caucus whip Liao Feng-te (
"It won't pass as soon as the DPP claims. The attempt to apply the amendment on this election is against the principle of `no retroactive application' of the law. The DPP is only using the proposal to delay the recount, but we demand an immediate recount," he said.
But like the DPP's plan, the blue camp's proposal said the amendment should apply to the presidential election this year.
Liao said the pan-blue camp made the proposal to make up for the lack of legal regulations regarding a recount.
He said a recount could take place as soon as the CEC decided on it, adding the CEC has the power to proceed with a recount.
The DPP caucus later rejected the claim by pointing out that there was no law that bestowed such power on the CEC.
Liao chaired the Procedure Committee session yesterday. He refused to consider the DPP's proposal and dismissed the session.
He then headed for the exit, but not before getting into a fight with DPP Legislator Lin Feng-hsi (林豐喜).
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
RSS