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.
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
OBJECTS AT SEA: Satellites with synthetic-aperture radar could aid in the detection of small Chinese boats attempting to illegally enter Taiwan, the space agency head said Taiwan aims to send the nation’s first low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite into space in 2027, while the first Formosat-8 and Formosat-9 spacecraft are to be launched in October and 2028 respectively, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council laid out its space development plan in a report reviewed by members of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee. Six LEO satellites would be produced in the initial phase, with the first one, the B5G-1A, scheduled to be launched in 2027, the council said in the report. Regarding the second satellite, the B5G-1B, the government plans to work with private contractors
‘OF COURSE A COUNTRY’: The president outlined that Taiwan has all the necessary features of a nation, including citizens, land, government and sovereignty President William Lai (賴清德) discussed the meaning of “nation” during a speech in New Taipei City last night, emphasizing that Taiwan is a country as he condemned China’s misinterpretation of UN Resolution 2758. The speech was the first in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to give across Taiwan. It is the responsibility of Taiwanese citizens to stand united to defend their national sovereignty, democracy, liberty, way of life and the future of the next generation, Lai said. This is the most important legacy the people of this era could pass on to future generations, he said. Lai went on to discuss
MISSION: The Indo-Pacific region is ‘the priority theater,’ where the task of deterrence extends across the entire region, including Taiwan, the US Pacific Fleet commander said The US Navy’s “mission of deterrence” in the Indo-Pacific theater applies to Taiwan, Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Stephen Koehler told the South China Sea Conference on Tuesday. The conference, organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), is an international platform for senior officials and experts from countries with security interests in the region. “The Pacific Fleet’s mission is to deter aggression across the Western Pacific, together with our allies and partners, and to prevail in combat if necessary, Koehler said in the event’s keynote speech. “That mission of deterrence applies regionwide — including the South China Sea and Taiwan,” he