Lawmakers across party lines yesterday failed to see eye to eye on the legislature's affirmation of President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) Control Yuan nominees, as a cross-party meeting called to discuss the matter failed to bear fruit.
They agreed to meet again on Thursday to discuss the issue.
Yesterday's inter-party negotiations were called by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) after the Presidential Office resent a letter and a list of the nominees to the Legislative Yuan yesterday morning, requesting the lawmaking body's approval of the president's selections.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
DPP caucus whip Lai Ching-te (賴清德) said that opposition parties' refusing to review the nominees violates the Constitution and encroaches on the president's constitutional rights.
"If they are not satisfied with any of the nominees, they can vote against them, but they cannot refuse to exercise their constitutional right to review the nominees," Lai said.
"This is because it is the president's constitutional right to make the nominations, while it is the lawmakers' job to examine the nominees," he said.
Lai called on the pan-blue alliance to keep the public interest in mind because the Control Yuan has had no members since Feb. 1, when the previous Control Yuan members' terms in office ended.
Since then, the investigation of over 3,000 complaints by civil servants have been suspended and national examinations where Control Yuan members were supposed to supervise have been affected, Lai said.
Instead of bickering about procedure, Lai said that opposition lawmakers should adopt a more practical approach to tackle the matter, since Chen has already responded to the opposition alliance's previous requests to resubmit the letter and nominees.
Opposition lawmakers had threatened to refuse to examine nominees if Chen failed to resend the letter and replace nominees they deemed "questionable."
Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) caucus whip Lai Shin-yuan (
The TSU had threatened to appeal to the Council of Grand Justices to suspend the Control Yuan if the opposition continues its boycott of the president's nominees.
People First Party (PFP) Legislator Lee Yung-ping (李永萍) yesterday said that her caucus refused to endorse the nominees this time around, because the president refused to make any changes to the list, as they requested.
"While the president had two months to think it over, he totally ignored our request and sent the same list again," Lee said.
Echoing Lee's opinion, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Chen Chieh (陳杰) said that his caucus feels sorry about the president's refusal to change the list, because some of the nominees are "inappropriate" and were given their positions as reward for their supporting the Chen administration.
"President Chen seems a troublemaker to me since he ignores the opinions of opposition parties," he said.
"In addition to discussing the matter with my party, I will further negotiate with other caucuses on Wednesday [tomorrow]," he said.
Chen Chieh will take turns officiating at the legislature's Procedure Committee tomorrow. The DPP caucus will attempt to place the affirmation of the president's selection of Control Yuan members on the committee's agenda.
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