Legislative speaker holds off on calling special session

Any request to convene a special session of the Legislative Yuan would come more appropriately from the president, rather than from the Cabinet or lawmakers of the ruling DPP, the speaker of the Legislative Yuan, Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), said yesterday.

He noted that the Executive Yuan has requested an extraordinary legislative session in order to screen and pass bills which did not have the opportunity to be passed into law before the legislature went into recess.

However, he pointed out that the Executive Yuan should ask the president to make a formal request to the Legislative Yuan for an extraordinary session.

The fifth session of the fourth legislature concluded at midnight on Thursday with only 42 bills having passed and dozens of others -- in particular those bills involving financial reforms -- still outstanding.

Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) on Thursday morning made several calls to Wang and faction chiefs of the opposition parties in the legislature in a bid to arrange an extraordinary session.

Chen was quoted by local Chinese-language media as saying on Friday that, if necessary, he would consult with the legislature according to constitutional procedure and urge that a special legislative session be held.

Members of the legislature's opposition alliance said they would only be willing to hold a special legislative session if all of the negotiations held in connection with the session were "transparent." This, they said, would avoid any "backroom politicking."

According to the Constitution, there are two ways of convening extraordinary legislative sessions -- either by a petition signed by at least one quarter of the 225 members of the legislature, or by a request from the president.