Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) led his Cabinet in resigning en masse yesterday evening, weeks earlier than required by the Constitution, following Saturday’s elections that saw President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) win re-election and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) retain its legislative majority.
However, Su will continue to serve as premier after the president earlier in the day asked him to remain in his post, Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang (張惇涵) said.
Tsai met with Su in the Presidential Office at noon, and asked him to continue to serve as head of the Executive Yuan to maintain stability, and Su agreed, Chang said.
Photo: CNA / Executive Yuan
Tsai had told a news conference on Saturday night that she expected to keep her executive team for her second term to maintain a level of stability amid rapidly changing domestic and international situations.
The 72-year-old Su became premier on Jan. 14 last year. He served as premier from Jan. 25, 2006, to May 20, 2007, and as DPP chairman from 2012 to 2014.
By law, the Cabinet has to resign before the start of the next Legislative Yuan, which will be on Feb. 1.
Lawmakers elected on Saturday will have several personnel nominations to review once they take their seats and during the course of their four-year terms.
The Act Governing the Exercise of Legislative Power (立法院職權行使法) stipulates that legislators should exercise their power of giving consent to the auditor general, prosecutor-general, grand justices, and the president, vice president and other members of the Control Yuan and Examination Yuan, adding that the appointees should be voted on during plenary sessions of the Legislative Yuan without deliberations.
The nominations would be confirmed if they win more than half of the legislative votes, the act says.
Tsai has the opportunity to make a substantive impact on the membership of those posts.
The term of the current Control Yuan members is to expire on July 31, so lawmakers must review the qualifications of Tsai’s nominees and give consent to them by that time.
Current Examination Yuan members are to step down when their terms ends on Aug. 31. The number of nominees to replace them will be reduced to seven or nine, a reduction stipulated by an amendment to the Organic Act of the Examination Yuan (考試院組織法) last year.
The terms of four of the Council of Grand Justices — Huang Horng-shya (黃虹霞), Wu Chen-huan (吳陳鐶), Tsai Ming-cheng (蔡明誠) and Lin Jiun-yi (林俊益) — are to expire on Sept. 30, 2023.
Once they are replaced, all 15 justices would have been nominated by Tsai Ing-wen. She will also be able to nominate a new prosecutor-general, whose term ends in May 2022.
Lawmakers are also to confirm the premier’s nominees for members of the National Communications Commission, Central Election Commission and Fair Trade Commission.
As the terms of these commissioners would overlap to ensure the continuity of governance, lawmakers would confirm the nominees twice during their four-year terms.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
DRONE CENTRAL: Taiwan aims to become Asia’s democratic hub for drones, with most exports focused on high-quality military-grade models, an official said Taiwan’s drone industry is expected to expand significantly by 2030, producing 100,000 units per month and exporting half of them, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Current drone production capacity is about 15,000 units per month, but the industry can quickly scale up as demand increases, Industrial Development Administration Director-General Chiou Chyou-huey (邱求慧) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s drone output grew 2.5-fold last year to NT$12.9 billion (US$408.3 million) under a government program to develop the uncrewed vehicle sector, he said. The Executive Yuan in October last year approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion into domestic production of uncrewed aerial
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
WARNING: China should stop engaging in actions that undermine regional peace and stability, as it would only build resentment among people across the Strait, the CGA said China has deployed more than 100 navy, coast guard and other vessels in waters from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea and the western Pacific since US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met in Beijing, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday. “In this part of the world, #China is the one & only PROBLEM wrecking the #StatusQuo & threatening regional peace & stability,” Wu wrote on X. In a separate post, he said Beijing was coercing Taiwan’s maritime domain, calling it illegal and provocative, after the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) expelled a
RSS