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Apollo Chen plans to launch motion today

Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖) of the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said yesterday that he might come up with a motion today to demand that a draft constitutional revision bill to halve the current 225 seats in the Legislative Yuan be referred once again to joint negotiations.

The proposal will be submitted if the numbers of the pan-blue alliance and the pan-green camp legislators that have endorsed the motion are equal, Chen said during a meeting with reporters.

Chen said that the motion had been endorsed by more than 30 lawmakers from across the political spectrum, including two of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). He added that DPP Legislator Shen Fu-hsiung (沈富雄) supports his concept but hasn't signed the motion yet.

He also expressed discontent at legislative caucus whips of the ruling and opposition parties for having prohibited their party lawmakers from endorsing the proposal, claiming that it is unreasonable for them to do so as they also understand that relevant matching measures are indispensable for the implementation of legislative reforms.

Chen said that he will seek to drum up support from Shen and other legislators of the pan-green camp that refers to the DPP and its ally -- the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU). Only when the pan-blue alliance and the pan-green camp lawmakers signing the motion are equal in numbers, will he not be branded as an "anti-reformist" while submitting the proposal, Chen said.

Hours after various political factions in the Legislative Yuan agreed to amend the Republic of China Constitution before the March 20 presidential election to reduce by half the number of legislators, several opposition lawmakers said that they support legislative reforms but worry that if it is done in haste, more problems will be created than are solved.

The Legislative Yuan's Committee of Constitutional Amendment passed the first reading of three draft constitutional revision bills on legislative reforms last week, under which the current 225 seats in the legislature will be cut to 113 starting from 2008, the current electoral system will be changed to a "single seat, two votes" system -- meaning one vote for an individual candidate and another vote for a political party in each constituency -- and legislators' terms will be extended to four years from the current three years.

The legislature is scheduled to deal with the three draft bills during a plenary session today in response to the public's repeated calls for upgrading the legislature's efficiency and quality.

According to deliberative rules of the Legislative Yuan, when any legislative caucus or legislator comes up with a motion against a draft bill that will be put to a second reading, the draft bill will be referred directly to joint negotiations and will be submitted to a plenary session for handling if no results are obtained within four months.
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