The Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) legislative caucus yesterday filed an application with the Judicial Yuan for a constitutional interpretation on the government's controversial policy of collecting fingerprints for the new national identification cards. Collection of fingerprints for the new cards is slated to begin on July 1.
The Council of Grand Justices could issue a temporary injunction against the law regulating the new policy.
According to Article 8 of the Household Registration Law (戶籍法), as of July 1, all citizens over the age of 14 must submit a full set of fingerprints when applying for an ID card. The new obligation has been marred by controversy since it was proposed. The DPP argues that the law violates privacy rights, and that the Council of Grand Justices should issue a temporary injunction on the law and rule it is inapplicable.
DPP caucus whip Chen Chin-jun (陳景峻) yesterday said that many people have expressed doubt about the fingerprint regulations because they think fingerprints and would not be helpful in catching criminals, as the Ministry of Interior has claimed.
"Given that July 1 is coming soon, we hope the Council of Grand Justices will consider our application for a constitutional interpretation [on the law] as an extra-urgent case before the provision comes into effect," Chen said.
Thus far the DPP has filed three applications for a constitutional interpretation on a host of laws, including Article 8 of the Household Registration Law, the Statute Governing the Operation of the National Assembly (國大職權行使法) and the pan-blue camp's habitual boycotts of bills in the legislature, including the arms procurement bill.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
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