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Consensus at hand on budget bill

Lawmakers yesterday made some progress on the government budget bill, which could now clear the legislature next Tuesday.

The bill, which was supposed pass the legislature by the end of last November, was stalled as a result of a stalemate on the Central Election Commission (CEC) bill, which the pan-blue camp insisted should be reviewed before the budget bill could be tackled, a move the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) likened to a "kidnapping."

Following party negotiations yesterday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Secretary-General Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) and DPP caucus whip Wang Sing-nan (王幸男) said they were "close to consensus" on the CEC bill.

"We both made some concessions," Wu said. "If [today's] negotiation goes well, we expect the passage of the CEC bill and the budget bill next Tuesday."

The original KMT-backed CEC bill called for all 17 members, including five non-party members, to be chosen according to the parties' relative number of legislative seats, replacing the system under which its members are designated by the premier.

Such a change to the CEC bill would result in a pan-blue majority in the body.

The DPP has accused the KMT of making the move to counter its plan of holding a referendum on recovering the KMT stolen assets during the presidential election next year.

In its defense, the KMT has said its CEC proposal aimed at removing the "partisan bias" tarnishing the CEC, which is supposed to be neutral.

Countless brawls have erupted on the legislative floor since late last year whenever the issue was raised.

But yesterday, Wu said his party would likely accept the DPP request that a referendum be held on election day.

"If the presidential election is held with the legislative election, each party has the right to propose a referendum," Wu said.

Wang said his party would agree to change the CEC bill on the condition that the five non-party members be selected without regard to each party's political strength.

"It's acceptable for the pan-blue and the pan-green camps to each recommend six members and the remaining five would be selected by the speaker and the premier," Wang said.

In related news, Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) will brief the legislature on his administrative policies and take questions from lawmakers during the plenary session on Friday.

He urged lawmakers to pass the budget without delay.

To delay approval of the proposal would have an impact on national security, public health, public transportation-related construction, students' rights and flood prevention, he said.

He said the military would not have enough money to maintain its weapons or purchase new ones. Free annual health exams for adults above 40 years of age would be impossible without the money, he said, adding that free lunches for elementary school children and reconstruction of old school housing would suffer a similar fate.

Construction of the overpass between Sun Yat-sen Freeway and Keelung Harbor has been frozen for more than six months because of the stalled budget, Chang said.
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