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Committee vetoes poll on stolen assets

A legislative committee yesterday resolved that the Central Election Commission should put an immediate halt to the second-stage signature drive that would force a referendum on whether the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) should return its stolen assets to the state coffers.

The initiator of the referendum proposal, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), needs to collect the signatures of 0.5 percent of the country's eligible voters, or 82,500 people, for the proposal to go ahead.

Cashing in on its numerical advantage in the committee, the opposition-dominated Organic Laws and Statutes Committee voted five to two in favor of a motion filed by KMT Legislator Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權).

Tseng condemned the Executive Yuan and it's Grievances Commission, criticizing the commission for abusing its power. He also requested the Central Election Commission immediately halt the signature campaign in accordance with the decision made by the Referendum Review Commission on Nov. 24.

The review committee ruled that the petition filed by DPP Chairman Yu Shyi-kun aiming to launch a referendum on reclaiming the KMT's stolen assets "failed to conform to related regulations." The decision ran counter to the decision made earlier by the Grievances Commission, which had said that Yu's proposal "conformed to related regulations."

Tseng yesterday argued that the Grievances Commission did not have the right to decide the fate of Yu's proposal because the issue fell under the jurisdiction of the Referendum Review Commission.

Tseng said that what the Grievances Commission should have done was to wait until the Referendum Review Commission reached a verdict and dismiss the ruling if it deemed it to be inappropriate, or ask the review committee to make a speedy review of Yu's proposal if it failed to tackle the matter within the time limit stated by law.

DPP caucus whip Chen Ching-jun (陳景峻) described Tseng's proposal as "ridiculous," saying that the KMT was twisting the arm of the legislature to deprive the people of their right to a referendum.

DPP Legislator Chen Chin-de (陳金德) said he doubted how much sway the committee's resolution would have on the Central Election Commission, whose supervisory body is the Executive Yuan.

Chen Chin-de criticized the Referendum Review Commission and Grievances Commission for doing a poor job and demanded the resignations of the heads of the two organizations.

KMT Legislator Hsu Shao-ping (徐少萍) suspected that the Executive Yuan had meddled in the matter and demanded the resignation of Grievances Commission Director Shih Hui-fen (施惠芬).

Shih, however, said it was not only her decision, but that of the commission's 12 members as well.

Shih said commission members had based their decision on the fact that the Referendum Review Commission had failed to tackle Yu's proposal within the two-month legal period after Yu filed the petition on Sept. 4. Yu complained to the Grievances Commission on Nov. 7 and the commission is required to make a decision within three months.

Referendum Review Commission Chairman Kao Yung-kuang (高永光) said that his commission was not up and running until Oct. 25. The commission agreed on Nov. 2 to decide the fate of Yu's proposal on Nov. 24, but Yu filed the complaint on Nov. 7 and the Grievances Commission announced their decision on Nov. 17.

Kao said that some of the review commission members were so upset with the Grievances Commission's decision that they were talking about resigning en masse to protest against its disrespect for their authority and abuse of power.
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