Lawmakers from the three major parties formed an alliance yesterday to push for an early start of the long-talked-about reform of the Legislative Yuan.
The DPP's Chen Chin-teh (
The lawmakers said many candidates had listed "promoting downsizing of the legislature and putting an end to legislative chaos" as their major campaign promises during last December's elections.
Relations between the ruling and opposition camps have remained tense since the inauguration of the new legislature in February and discussions on reforms have been futile so far.
The lawmakers said they are worried that legislative reforms will still be a pipe dream when their terms end in three years.
Since cutting the number of seats is the least contentious reform proposal, Chen said the new alliance would first focus on forging an inter-party consensus on the issue.
The Constitution stipulates that the legislature should have 225 members. Any change to the number of seats would require constitutional amendments which need the support of all major political parties.
"Given the complex and onerous process of amending the Constitution, ruling and opposition parties should sit down to patiently discuss how to design a more reasonable size, framework or structure for our new legislature," Chen said.
As to how the new legislators would be elected and how constituencies would be readjusted, Chen said those details can be prescribed in a law instead of being put into the Constitution.
Tsai echoed Chen's view, saying that most countries in the world only stipulate the number of parliamentary seats in their constitutions and set out parliamentary electoral systems in separate laws.
Noting that the main purpose of the reforms is not just to scale down the legislature, Tsai said all major parties should rationally and extensively discuss adjusting the number of seats to a reasonable level in order to ensure smooth and efficient operations in the lawmaking body.
The Government Reform Committee unveiled a legislative reform blueprint on Sunday. According to the plan, the number of seats should be cut to from 225 to 150. It also recommends a "single-member district, two vote" system for legislative elections and an extension of the terms of legislators from three to four years.
The plan has drawn criticism from the opposition parties. Even many DPP legislators have said that they disagree with certain aspects of the plan. The DPP legislative caucus and the party headquarters are still integrating their own versions of the reform plan.
The KMT and the PFP legislative caucuses are also drafting their own reform proposals.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
‘SAME OLD TRICK’: Even if Beijing resumes individual travel to Taiwan, it would only benefit Chinese tourism companies, the Economic Democracy Union convener said China’s 10 new “incentives” are “sugar-coated poison,” an official said yesterday, adding that Taiwanese businesses see them clearly for what they are, but that Beijing would inevitably find some local collaborators to try to drums up support. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, made the remark ahead of a news conference the General Chamber of Commerce is to hold today. The event, titled “Industry Perspectives on China’s Recent Pro-Taiwan Policies,” is expected to include representatives from industry associations — such as those in travel, hotels, food and agriculture — to request the government cooperate with China’s new measures, people familiar with
RSS