After intervention by the Presidential Office and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) headquarters, Wu Chin-lin (伍錦霖), President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) nominee for vice president of the Examination Yuan, was approved by the legislature yesterday, along with 19 other nominees.
Despite a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus resolution to reject Wu in yesterday morning’s confidential vote, Wu received 86 affirmative votes and 22 negative votes from the 112 legislators present at the plenary session.
Four legislators cast invalid votes, while DPP Legislator Chen Chi-yu (陳啟昱) was absent.
The Law Governing the Legislative Yuan’s Exercise of Power (立法院職權行使法) stipulates that the president’s nominees for the Examination Yuan must win more than half of the legislators’ support, or 57 votes, to be approved.
The KMT controls 81 seats in the 113-seat legislature, while its allies, the People First Party and the Non-Partisan Solidarity Union, have one seat and four seats respectively. The DPP controls 27 seats.
If all 22 negative votes were cast by DPP legislators, the four invalid votes may have been cast by DPP lawmakers.
The DPP caucus resolved to vote against Wu on the grounds that he was a long-time KMT staffer and his brother, former KMT legislator Wu Tse-yuan (伍澤元), is a fugitive.
The Legislative Yuan did not vote on the nomination of Chang Chun-yen (張俊彥) as Examination Yuan president as Chang withdrew his candidacy last Saturday, citing attacks on his integrity and qualifications by lawmakers and the media.
Earlier yesterday, KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) attended a KMT caucus meeting to urge legislators to vote for Wu Chin-lin and the other 19 Examination Yuan nominees.
“The Presidential Office made a thorough effort to communicate [with KMT legislators] and ensure a win-win situation, which in turn made it easier for the party headquarters to assist it [in terms of the nomination],” he said.
Wu Poh-hsiung was referring to Ma’s inviting KMT legislators to the Presidential Office for talks last Sunday after the legislature surprised many by rejecting four of Ma’s nominees for the Control Yuan last week.
Several KMT legislators confirmed yesterday that they had received phone calls from the Presidential Office and the KMT party headquarters on Thursday night.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) told reporters that he had made some 20 calls.
“These [calls] made me feel like a naughty child,” KMT Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) said.
“Tomorrow [today] is President Ma’s birthday. This [nomination approval] is a birthday present for him,” KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) said.
All of the other nominees to the Examination Yuan passed the 57-vote threshold.
Tsai Shih-yuan (蔡式淵), who was previously blacklisted by the KMT caucus, won 92 affirmative votes.
Not all of the nominees, however, won unanimous support from the pan-blue camp.
Bian Yu-yuan (邊裕淵) received the least affirmative votes, 78, meaning that eight pan-blue legislators did not vote for him.
Some DPP legislators also failed to follow the DPP caucus’ resolution to vote against 12 of the nominees.
Huang Chun-ying (黃俊英), whom the DPP caucus had resolved to reject, received only 22 negative votes.
Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said that talks with KMT headquarters and the party caucus on the Examination Yuan nominees on Thursday were smooth.
Wang Yu-chi said the office, the KMT and the party caucus had reached a consensus on having the nominees pass the legislative review.
“We believe that passing the Examination Yuan nominees should be a great help for upholding the Constitution,” Wang Yu-chi said.
Additional reporting by Mo Yan-chih
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