If the current Legislative Yuan is dissolved, new legislative elections will have to be conducted under the new electoral system, the Central Election Commission said on Friday.
The commission made the announcement amid reports that the opposition was considering a recall of the president or the toppling of the Cabinet in the wake of a spate of corruption scandals implicating the close aides and family members of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
Election commission officials said if opposition legislators initiated a motion of no-confidence and won enough support in the legislature, and the president refused to budge and instead dissolved the legislature, then they would have to conduct the new legislative election within 60 days.
The new legislative election would be carried out according to the amended Constitution, including the new electoral system of "single constituency, two votes" under a re-districting scheme and the halving of the number of legislative seats to 113, adopted last June.
According to the recently amended law governing the election and recall of public functionaries, the legislature is required to give its consent to the re-districting scheme at least 13 months before the current legislature expires.
Commission spokesman Deng Tien-you (鄧天祐) said the draft re-districting scheme, which was mapped out by the commission after a lengthy consultation period with local election commissions and the views of academics and experts, has already been sent to the legislature.
If the legislature has not yet given its consent and a new legislative election is approaching, then the new constituency would follow the re-districting scheme mapped out by the commission, because the status of the Constitution is higher than the law, he said.
The newly elected legislators would be sworn in for four-year terms instead of the current three years, according to the amended Constitution.
SPEEDING ELETRIC VEHICLES: Available without license requirements, the low-cost vehicles, especially if illicitly modified, can often reach a dangerous speed The government should crack down on illegal electric bicycles and scooters, the non-profit Consumers’ Foundation said on Friday, citing research on the potentially dangerous speed of the vehicles. Electric bicycles and lightweight electric scooters have gained popularity as they do not require registration and riders do not need licenses, the foundation said, adding that as many as 40 percent of them can reach speeds exceeding the legal limit of 25kph for non-licensed two-wheelers. Some consumers also purchased legal electric vehicles and modified them to reach higher speeds, it said. “If the government does not step up efforts to confiscate these
‘RELIABLE PARTNER’: US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar praised the ‘Taiwan model,’ saying that the nation brought its spirit to its COVID-19 response The first memorandum of understanding (MOU) on health cooperation between the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the US Department of Health and Human Services was yesterday signed at the Centers for Disease Control in Taipei. The memorandum was signed between the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US, by AIT Director Brent Christensen and Taiwan Council for US Affairs Chairperson Jen-ni Yang (楊珍妮). US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar and Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) witnessed the signing of the memorandum, designed to enhance the nations’
Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) yesterday tweeted a welcome to Somaliland’s first representative to Taiwan, Mohamed Omar Hagi Mohamoud, who arrived on Friday. Mohamoud had “braved Chinese pressure” to take up his new post, Wu wrote. “The fact ‘sovereignty & friendship aren’t for sale’ deserves international recognition,” referring to a Somaliland media report earlier this month that Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi had rejected an offer by the Chinese government in exchange for ending its rapprochement with Taiwan. Wu also thanked the US National Security Council (NSC) for praising Taiwan-Somaliland ties. A council tweet on July 10 praised Taiwan
The Taipei City Government yesterday said that construction on the long-suspended Taipei Dome can resume immediately, after it approved a request by the project’s main contractor, Farglory Group. In a statement, the Taipei Construction Management Office said that after it on July 16 issued a new building permit, Farglory submitted revised design plans and an application to resume construction, which the office approved on Friday. Construction had been suspended on the dome, near the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Xinyi District (信義), for more than five years due to disagreements between the city and the company over the safety of some of
RSS