The legislature’s Procedure Committee yesterday passed a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus-proposed bill aimed at establishing a protocol to regulate transfers of power for the period between presidential elections and their inaugurations.
The proposal is now listed on Friday’s legislative agenda. In the hope that the proposed bill could be passed before the current legislative session goes into recess next Wednesday, the DPP caucus yesterday said it would demand that the bill be put directly to a second reading during Friday’s plenary session and then be put to discussion, along with a similar proposal by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟).
The DPP caucus’ version would stipulate that as soon as the Central Election Commission (CEC) announces an election result, the president-elect must establish an office to handle pre-inauguration matters. During the transitional period, officials from the central government should brief the -president-elect on their respective departments’ affairs, it added.
As for an incumbent who fails in a re-election bid, he or she must neither appoint nor transfer officials during the period between Election Day and the day she or he leaves office, it said. With the exception of those that have been passed by the legislature, all directives, budgets and policies that the president-elect deems controversial should be put on hold for the president-elect and vice president-elect to deal with after they assume office, it added.
The main difference between the DPP version and the KMT caucus’ version (which was later combined with the version proposed by Lu) was that the KMT caucus was of the opinion that a “handover committee” should be established within seven days of the CEC’s announcement of the election result. The KMT caucus’ version suggested that a committee head be appointed by the president-elect, while both the incumbent and the president-elect select five people each to serve as members of the committee.
The CEC’s decision earlier this year to merge next year’s presidential election and the legislative elections means the presidential vote, which was supposed to be held in March next year, will take place in January, creating an unprecedented four-month gap between the presidential election and the president-elect’s inauguration on May 20.
A number of academics have expressed concerns over the four-month transition period on issues such as whether there should be an en masse resignation of the Cabinet and whether the caretaker government would refrain from making major policy changes.
Additional reporting by CNA
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
The final batch of 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks purchased from the US arrived at Taipei Port last night and were transported to the Armor Training Command in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), completing the military’s multi-year procurement of 108 of the tanks. Starting at 12:10am today, reporters observed more than a dozen civilian flatbed trailers departing from Taipei Port, each carrying an M1A2T tank covered with black waterproof tarps. Escorted by military vehicles, the convoy traveled via the West Coast Expressway to the Armor Training Command, with police implementing traffic control. The army operates about 1,000 tanks, including CM-11 Brave Tiger
China on Wednesday teased in a video an aircraft carrier that could be its fourth, and the first using nuclear power, while making an allusion to Taiwan and vowing to further build up its islands, as it looks to boost maritime power, secure resources and bolster territorial claims. The video, issued on the eve of the 77th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, featured fictional officers with names that are homophones of three commissioned aircraft carriers, the Liaoning (遼寧), Shandong (山東) and Fujian (福建). Titled Into the Deep, it showed a 19-year-old named “Hejian” (何劍) joining the group, sparking
BIG YEAR: The company said it would also release its A12 chip the same year to keep a ‘reliable stream of new silicon technologies’ flowing to its customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said its newest A13 chip is to enter volume production in 2029 as the chipmaker seeks to hold onto its tech leadership and demand for next-generation chips used in artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance-computing (HPC) and mobile applications. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, also unveiled its A12 chip at its annual technology symposium in Santa Clara, California. The A12 chip, which features TSMC’s super-power-rail technology to provide backside power delivery for AI and HPC applications, is also to enter volume production in 2029, a year after the scheduled release of the A14 chip. The technology moves
RSS