TSU to push lawmaker cuts

Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) lawmakers yesterday said that they will propose an amendment to the Constitution tomorrow to decrease the legislature to half of its current size.

"We are planning to make the proposal on Feb. 26," said Lo Chih-ming (羅志明), spokesman of TSU's legislative caucus. "I feel confident that all of the DPP's 88 lawmakers in the house will support our proposal. Other than the DPP, we have also received support from People First Party (PFP) and KMT lawmakers."

Many DPP lawmakers and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) told TSU lawmakers that they will endorse the proposal. TSU legislators believe that the proposal will become a bill later this week, according to Lo.

Currently, there are 225 law-makers in the house. The TSU has proposed decreasing the total number of lawmakers to 113.

According to the Constitution, to make the proposal an official bill, 57 of the 225 legislators have to vote in favor. The TSU needs 44 legislators from other political parties to endorse their proposal and make it a bill since the TSU only holds 13 seats.

The bill requires 127 votes to pass in a legislative meeting attended by 169 lawmakers.

According to the Constitution, once an amendment is passed by the Legislative Yuan, it will be transferred to the National Assembly (國民大會) for another three reviews within six months.

The National Assembly must finish three reviews to decide whether the amendment is passed or not. Once started, the process must be completed within a month, including amending the Constitution if the amendment is passed.

Of the National Assembly's 315 representatives, 63 must vote in favor of reviewing the amendment or it will die immediately.

Each of the three National Assembly reviews requires at least 210 representatives to attend the meeting and 158 votes to pass the amendment.

Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘), the convener the of DPP's legislative caucus, said that it is also the DPP's goal to cut the number of legislative seats in half.

In the meantime, the PFP said that the current size of the legislature should definitely be decreased. However, the party hasn't decided on the final number of legislative seats.

"The final number of seats should be discussed before we go any further," said Diane Lee (李慶安), the convener the of PFP's legislative caucus. "We will not encourage our lawmakers to endorse the proposal."

KMT Legislative Whip Lin Yi-shih (林益世) said that KMT lawmakers would look before they leap.

"We haven't seen the proposal yet," Lin said. "This is an important issue and we will not make any decision on whether to endorse it so easily.

"We need more time to think about it."