Ma wants a two-thirds threshold for Control Yuan picks

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday proposed raising the approval threshold for Control Yuan, Judicial Yuan and Exam-ination Yuan nominations from a majority vote to a two-thirds vote to ensure the acceptability of the nominees.

Ma said that members of the Control Yuan and Examination Yuan, as well as the Council of Grand Justices, are required to exercise their duties independently and therefore must be nominated based on their professionalism, rather than from political considerations.

He said raising the approval threshold to a two-thirds majority would help shut out "politicians who are not supposed to get in."

Ma's proposal was intended to resolve a deadlock in the legislature, which has refused to consider a list of Control Yuan members nominated by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).

The KMT and the People First Party (PFP) are dissatisfied with the nominations. They have asked that the list be changed, but Chen has refused.

Chen's "abuse of his power as the president and his refusal to revise the list" is to blame for the deadlock, KMT spokeswoman Cheng Li-wen (鄭麗文) said.

The KMT hopes to reform the system to prompt the president to take different opinions into consideration to protect the independence of the Control Yuan and prevent the president from abusing his power, Cheng said.

Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) urged the KMT to consider the matter properly before moving to amend the law.

Meanwhile, the arms procurement plan was for the 32nd time rejected by the legislature's Procedural Committee yesterday, and Chen's nominations for the Control Yuan were also rejected.

The pan-blue dominated committee voted 18 to 15 to deter the two bills as well as 20 other bills proposed by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and its ally, the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU).

Additional reporting by Ko Shu-ling