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.
SOLIDARITY: A group of European lawmakers condemned China’s aggressive moves, while the foreign minister of Lithuania said Taiwan ‘cannot become a second Ukraine’ A German parliamentary delegation would visit Taiwan in the first week of October, German lawmaker Holger Becker on Monday told visiting Democratic Progressive Party legislators Fan Yun (范雲) and Lin I-chin (林宜瑾) at the Bundestag in Berlin. Asked by Fan whether he is worried about possible reprisals from Beijing, such as banning him and his family from entering China, Becker said he is more interested in visiting Taiwan, as “now is the time for democracies to stand together.” Fan and Lin also met with German officials to exchange views on digital education and governance. Investing in digital infrastructure and protecting equal rights to
As China waged extensive military exercises off Taiwan, a group of US defense experts in Washington was focused on their own simulation of an eventual — but for now entirely hypothetical — US-China war over the nation. The unofficial what-if game is being conducted on the fifth floor of an office building not far from the White House, and it posits a US military response to a Chinese invasion in 2026. Even though the participants bring a US perspective, they are finding that a US-Taiwan victory, if there is one, could come at a huge cost. “The results are showing that under
WRONG TIMING: The delegation’s trip has not only disappointed Taiwanese, but could send a wrong message to the global community, Tsai Ing-wen said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman Andrew Hsia (夏立言) yesterday left with a delegation for a trip to China, drawing fire for visiting at a time when Beijing has been conducting intensive military drills to pressure Taiwan. Before boarding, he told reporters that the delegation would be visiting Taiwanese communities and students in China, and possibly meet with Chinese officials. The Mainland Affairs Council on Tuesday night said that it was not the right time for political party members to visit China, as Beijing has been conducting military exercises since Thursday last week. President Tsai Ing- wen (蔡英文), chairperson of the Democratic
‘MILITARY PLAYBOOK’: It would have taken far longer for the PLA to put together the drills had they actually been in response to Nancy Pelosi’s visit, Joseph Wu said China is using military drills to prepare for an invasion of Taiwan, and its anger over US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit is just an excuse, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday. Speaking in English at a news conference in Taipei, Wu accused China of “gross violations of international law.” “China has used the drills in its military playbook to prepare for the invasion of Taiwan,” he said. “It is conducting large-scale military exercises and missile launches, as well as cyberattacks, disinformation and economic coercion, in an attempt to weaken public morale in Taiwan.” He said the Chinese
RSS