The People First Party (PFP) will work closely with its ally, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), in pushing through major legislation in the next Legislative Yuan session, a PFP legislator in charge of the party's policy said yesterday.
PFP Legislator Hwang Yih-jiau(
Hwang said the PFP and the KMT will try to have the legislature complete the third reading of the amendment in the next legislative session because it is needed to ensure a fair and just presidential election next year.
He added that although the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) opposed the amendment in the last legislative session, it is likely to easily pass easily in the new session as long as Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
The amendment proposed by the KMT would distribute CEC seats according to the ratio of seats held by each political party in the legislature.
instead of being nominated by the premier and appointed by the president as is now the case.
The KMT has complained that 15 of the 17 members currently serving on the CEC are from the DPP and its ally, the Taiwan Solidarity Union.
On the final day before the last legislative session ended on Jan. 19, DPP legislators resorted to physical violence to block the draft amendment from passing on the grounds that the budget bill was more important and should have been reviewed first.
However, opposition legislators refused to make concessions to the DPP lawmakers and insisted on pushing for a vote on the third reading of the amendment.
To prevent the speaker from re-entering the legislative floor after a recess, DPP lawmakers also locked the main entrance to the legislature with a motorcycle padlock.
The legislative session ended without passing any bills and left the central government without a budget after the start of the fiscal year for the first time in the nation's history.
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