A legislative leader from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) vowed yesterday that his party would push to institutionalize the legislative process they used this week to confirm the appointees to the Council of Grand Justices
KMT Secretary General Lee Chia-chin (
Lee said that his party will now engage in a four-month research project to find out what it considers to be the best way to fix the rules for the confirmation vote.
The president currently nominates members of the Council of Grand Justices, members and leaders of the Control Yuan and the Examination Yuan as well as naming his candidate for Auditor General of the Control Yuan. But, according to the Constitution, it is the Legislative Yuan that must give final approval to these nominees.
"The KMT supports institutionalizing these confirmation exercises either by amending the Legislative Yuan's internal laws or by formulating a special law to detail rules for things such as scheduling the agenda and setting procedures for the confirmation exercises," Lee said yesterday.
He said that formalizing the rules should help solve controversies such as those that have arisen recently. One big argument this time was over whether or not two grand justices nominees had enough teaching experience. An earlier debate centered on whether the president have should been allowed to nominate five Control Yuan members when the incumbent members still had more than a year left in their tenure.
Lee said that Tuesday's confirmation vote for the Grand Justice nominees demonstrated the KMT's resolve to formalize the process in a way that would be consistent with the Constitution.
But Lee didn't comment on a similar draft regulation proposed by independent Legislator Su Yin-kuei (
Su delivered the draft bill to the Legislature in March at the beginning of the lawmakers' last session.
The bill detailed Su's suggestions about how lawmakers should exercise of their powers of confirmation and also detailed new rules for setting the agenda during the confirmation process
Su, a former legal practitioner, said that the draft regulation should address the main concerns: First, formalizing the set up of a legislative panel that would be in charge of discussions and private hearings to handle arguments and challenges to the integrity of the nominees. Second, having a uniform procedure for the public hearings which should focus on the nominees' professionalism and their views of the Constitution
Su said that if lawmakers collected information about the nominees in both ways, the Legislative Yuan could carry out a professional confirmation procedure that would be meaningful and not just for show.
The draft bill, however, has remained stuck in committee after its passed first reading last session.
"The KMT legislators didn't realize the importance of a formal process until they wanted to form a private panel to examine the nominees in June," Su said yesterday.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative leader Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) responded to the KMT's announcement yesterday by saying that he hopes Lee's vow to make changes would be more than an empty promise.
"While an internal panel in the DPP had being studying institutionalization before Tuesday's vote, we certainly hope that the KMT will start to do the same thing. And they'd better keep their promise this time," Chen said.
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