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Legislators to vote today on grand justice nominees

Lawmakers are ready for today's confirmation vote on 15 nominees for the Council of Grand Justices, which opposition parties have promised will not be restricted by party dictates.

"The Legislative Yuan confirmed Hsu Yu-hsiao (許玉秀) and Lin Tzu-yi (林子儀) could remain nominees for the Council of Grand Justices after accepting the Presidential Office's clarification about their experience," said Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) as he declared an end to a question-and-answer session for the nominees yesterday afternoon.

Wang's announcement meant that all 15 nominees proposed by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) will go through today's vote.

Hsu and Lin were at risk of being excluded from the list after pan-blue lawmakers raised questions about whether the pair met the requirement that the justices have 10 years teaching experience.

Several Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators had considered rejecting the pair for not meeting the requirement at the time of their nomination in May.

Last week pan-blue lawmakers demanded a clarification from Presidential Office on the two men.

Hsu, who is a law professor at National Chengchi University, and Lin, a law professor at National Taiwan University, will meet the requirement by the time the new council is due to be inaugurated on Oct. 3.

Last Friday, following inter-party negotiations, Wang announced that there was a consensus to request a presidential clarification on the pair.

The clarification was sent to the Legislative Yuan yesterday morning, bearing the signature of the secretary-general to the Presidential Office.

This upset pan-blue lawmakers.

"The president should authorize the clarification since he issued the nomination. Chen is the person that should sign the supplementary clarification paper, not his secretary general," People First Party legislative leader Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) said.

Wang finally got pan-blue legislators to accept the clarification after the Presidential Office sent a new copy with Chen's signature.

Opposition leaders promised yesterday that no legislator will be disciplined by his or her party over their votes today or forced legislators to display their ballot.

The promise was welcomed by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers.

Taiwan Solidarity Union law-makers told a press conference yesterday that they would vote to approve all 15 nominees.

Lawmakers will vote this morning on confirming Judicial Yuan President Weng Yueh-sheng (翁岳生) and Vice President Cheng Chung-mo (城仲模) for a second term. The other nominees will be voted on in a second session.
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