Anti-Ma amendment passes committee

A proposed amendment that would mean anybody found guilty of corruption in a first trial would be ineligible to stand as a candidate for the presidency or vice presidency cleared the legislature's Procedure Committee yesterday.

The amendment to the President and Vice President Election and Recall Law (總統副總統選舉罷免法), proposed by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), is clearly aimed at former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) who is standing trial on charges of embezzlement.

Ma has said that he will run in next year's presidential race even if he is found guilty in his first trial.

Four People First Party (PFP) lawmakers sitting on the Procedure Committee were absent from the meeting yesterday, meaning the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) did not have the numbers to block the DPP's proposed amendment.

PFP lawmakers Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞), Hwang Yih-jiau (黃義交), Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀) and Lee Fu-tien (李復甸) were unavailable for comment on their absence.

KMT legislative caucus whip Hsu Shao-ping (徐少萍) said she got a telephone call from a PFP legislative aide at the last minute asking her to act as proxy committee chair for Lee.

"She [the aide] told me that they [the four PFP lawmakers] were at a meeting and might not be able to make it to the Procedure Committee in time because of traffic," Hsu said.

DPP Legislator Chen Chin-te (陳金德) proposed the change in the wake of Ma's indictment on corruption charges over his alleged misuse of the mayoral special allowance when he was Taipei mayor.

An anonymous DPP source said that the PFP's move was intended to show their discontent with the KMT over negotiations on joint nominations for the year-end legislative elections.

"The PFP was already unhappy with the KMT because it preferred Keelung Council Speaker Chang Tong-rong (張通榮) [of the KMT] over the PFP's Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄) as its nominee for the upcoming Keelung mayor by-election," the source said.

Hsu dismissed the allegations.

However, DPP Legislative caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) told reporters late yesterday that he did talk the matter over with the the four PFP lawmakers.

"That the PFP can act on its own rather than side with the KMT is helpful to resolve chronic confrontation in the legislature between the pan-blue and pan-green camps," he said.

Lawmakers will decide whether to refer the amendment to its related committees for primary review during a plenary session on Friday.

Hsu said the KMT caucus would move to send it back to the Procedure Committee.

But Ker said the DPP will motion to send the amendment directly to its second reading on Friday.

Ker added that he expected to gain support from KMT lawmakers who favor Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) as the party's presidential candidate over Ma.

KMT Secretary-General Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said he would find out what happened and communicate with the PFP, adding that the KMT didn't want to see any more surprises on Friday.