Senior presidential adviser and former vice premier Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭) will likely be named the speaker of the National Assembly, which will be tasked with completing the constitutional amendments passed by the legislature last August, according to the list of nominees the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) unveiled yesterday.
In a news conference held after the party's central executive committee, the DPP yesterday listed 150 nominees for the National Assembly Representatives' election that is scheduled to be held on May 14. The most prominent name on the list was Yeh, who is ranked as the first nominee. Several former lawmakers who lost their re-election bids were also on the list.
According to the law governing the National Assembly's exercise of power (國民大會職權行使法), the party that wins the largest number of seats in the election will be able to recommend that its candidate serve as the speaker of the National Assembly.
In terms of past election results, the DPP has been the party that won the most seats and therefore Yeh will probably become the leader of the 300 National Assembly representatives, who must finalize the four constitutional amendments that were passed by the legislature on Aug. 23.
The new representatives will have to implement the four constitutional amendments in July. The amendments include a downsizing bill that will cut the number of legislative seats from 225 to 113 starting in 2008, and which would also extend legislators' terms from three years to four years. The bill also mandates the adoption of a new electoral system -- known as the "single-member district, two-vote system" -- to replace the existing "multi-member district, single-vote system."
The third bill is to revise the Referendum Law to make it a part of the Constitution. The fourth bill is to abolish the existence of the National Assembly.
However, the law governing the National Assembly's exercise of power has not been passed yet by the Legislative Yuan. If the Legislative Yuan fails to pass the law, it will prevent the constitutional amendments from being implemented.
Except for Yeh Chun-jung (
Meanwhile, because of an insufficient budget for the March 26 rally, DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods