Even as Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
Two days ago Wang said he would communicate with the alliance of independent lawmakers, which opposed the legislative reform bill, hoping to change the alliance's stance and pass the bill before the end of this month and put the bill into practice for the legislative election in three years.
The bill was supposed to pass the legislative sitting on March 19, after all caucuses signed an agreement, but the independent legislator's alliance backed out and motioned to have the bill undergo further negotiation, so the bill stalled in negotiations.
Wang reiterated his support yesterday by saying he would invite all caucuses to negotiations next week.
"I am pushing for legislative reform not out of the consideration for the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) legislative election campaign or future elections, but rather out of the consideration for the public," Wang said.
"If we deal with the bill according to the legislature's existing negotiation procedures, we may have to wait a few months before we look into this bill. I am now pushing for it on my own initiative to meet society's demands," Wang said.
"The Constitutional amendment on legislative reform is a reform needed by the country, and I would try my best to push it through. It is my duty, but whether it will go well I cannot say," Wang said.
The alliance of independent lawmakers, meanwhile, responded by saying the alliance would accept a reasonable agreement.
"The alliance doesn't oppose reform, but we still insist on certain issues. For example, the regulation that 30 percent of the seats should be reserved for women is unreasonable," the alliance's convener, Legislator Yen Chin-piao (
"We are willing to participate in the negotiation and we will not boycott the bill. If the outcome is reasonable, we will accept it," Yen said. The caucuses are slated to hold another negotiation on the bill today.
Yesterday's Constitutional Amendment Committee meeting to discuss other related articles on legislative and reform was aborted because of lack of attendance.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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