Last Friday's legislative chaos stemmed from a controversy over whether to alter the make up of the electoral commission.
Political analysts yesterday offered mixed views on the matter.
Trying to stop a vote on the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-sponsored bill designed to change the composition of Central Election Commission (CEC), Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers resorted to filibustering, paralyzing the proceedings on the legislative floor.
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
If the bill, calling for the selection of CEC members in accordance with political parties' electoral strength, had been amended, the pan-blue camp would have taken control of the commission, whose members are nominated by the premier and appointed by the president.
The KMT proposed the bill which it said could remove the "partisan bias" tarnishing the CEC which is supposed to operate in a neutral manner. The DPP, on the other hand, accused the KMT of attempting to dominate the commission so that it could thwart a referendum on recovering its stolen assets.
"When it comes to the issue of the KMT's stolen assets, it seemed acceptable to me to stage a fierce protest to block the vote," said Lee Yeau-tarn (
Lee was referring to the filibustering staged by DPP lawmakers, leading to a melee in which several lawmakers including the speaker were left with slight injuries.
Instead of calling the protest by the DPP "an act of violence," Lee said he would term it "a boycott to hold up proceedings."
"That's the only strategy the minority can use to demand the majority cede the upper hand when the majority has been reluctant to negotiate with the minority," Lee said.
Ger Yeong-kuang (葛永光), professor of political science at National Taiwan University, on the other hand, condemned DPP lawmakers for failing to obey the rules of a democracy.
"There is no way in a democracy that people should come to blows over disagreements. [What happened on the floor on Friday] was a joke. It's hard to believe that some DPP lawmakers even secured the chamber's doors to keep the speaker off the floor," Ger said.
"As all other procedures for dispute resolution had been used, voting was the only way to go," he said. "To block a vote, you can resort to filibuster on the floor, not acts of violence."
According to the legislature's rules, a bill is allowed to be put to a second reading vote on the floor if it fails to enjoy the support of all legislative caucuses four months after the bill has passed its preliminary review in the committee.
In the case of the CEC bill, the date was March 9 last year, which means that lawmakers have been haggling over the composition of the commission for almost a year.
Given the nature of the commission, charged with the authority to handle electoral affairs as well as referendum businesses, lawmakers have been taking their own partisan interests into account when considering its composition.
The KMT, referring to the nation's first referendum on strengthening defense capabilities, which was held on the same day as the 2004 presidential election, said its proposition aimed to prevent "combining referenda with national elections" from happening again.
The pan-blue camp argued that the CEC had abused its power over that decision in 2004, believing it had shored up support for President Chen Shui-bian (
On the possibility of the CEC granting an upcoming request to have a referendum on the KMT's stolen assets with year-end legislative elections, should the DPP collect enough signatures to file the request, the passage of the bill becomes a priority for the KMT.
"The argument made by the KMT does have a point because the legitimacy of combining a referendum with a national election is still in dispute," Ger said.
Lee, however, said the combination should not be a problem if politicians took seriously the collection of the public's views via the referendum.
"Under the check-and-balance system, if the KMT considers that the CEC is wrong in combining the two events, the KMT should demand the CEC do the right thing, rather than make a law to grasp power," Lee said. "Legislative power can't infringe on executive power."
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