DPP slams KMT nominee move

"Both the opposition legislators and the president should make concessions to end this long-stalled controversy."

Huang Wei-cher, DPP legislator

Opposition legislators called on the president yesterday to submit a new list of Control Yuan nominees, while Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators rebuked them for overstepping their legislative power in making the request.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) laid down two conditions he said would lead to the review of the nominees -- the president must renew the list and the nominee approval threshold must be raised from a simple majority vote to a two-thirds majority vote.

The Control Yuan, the watchdog of the four other branches of government, has been idle since the term of the last members expired in January last year because the opposition-controlled legislature has blocked President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) list of nominees ever since.

"Given that three of the original nominees have taken seats in the new Cabinet, the president should take advantage of this opportunity to withdraw the current list and propose a new one," Wu said.

The opposition legislators boycotted the review as they were dissatisfied with the nominees, with Wu saying that the president had nominated unqualified candidates in order to reward them.

KMT Legislator Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池) said that the nominee approval threshold should be lifted to a two-thirds majority so that legislators could carefully scrutinize the competence of the nominees.

In response, DPP legislative caucus whip Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) said that the legislature had no right to ask the president to propose a new list.

"The president will nominate another three candidates to replace the three who joined the Cabinet recently. But whether the president will name a new list for all 29 Control Yuan members, that's totally up to him," Yeh said.

But DPP Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) suggested the president propose a new list as a goodwill gesture to the opposition camp.

"Both the opposition legislators and the president should make concessions to end this long-stalled controversy," he said.

Commenting on the dispute, Shane Lee (李憲榮), a political science professor at Chang Jung Christian University, said that the legislature is obliged to review the list but had no right to ask the president to produce a new one.

Lee said it was ridiculous for the legislature to continue shunning its responsibility to review the nominees, as stipulated in the Constitution.

"Paralyzing the operations of the Control Yuan by blocking the review process is a serious violation of the Constitution," he said.