Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (
"I hope that my party and the caucus will consider it. Stalling the bill won't benefit anyone. The KMT should express its goodwill first in exchange for cooperation from the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP]," Ma said yesterday at KMT headquarters in Taipei.
While promising to help pass the general budget bill, Ma said that the management of state-owned enterprises budget bill and special budget proposal should not be included and would require further negotiations.
PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FONG, TAIPEI TIMES
Urging the KMT caucus to take the initiative in bringing reconciliation to the deadlocked general budget bill, Ma called on the DPP to allow the Central Election Commission (CEC) Organic Law (中央選舉委員會組織法) to be reviewed as well.
"Stalling the general budget bill will benefit no-one. Maybe the KMT will feel wronged by giving in, but we don't want Taiwan and the people to be wronged," Ma said.
Asked to comment on the reasons behind his announcement, Ma said he made the proposal simply because the legislative session would end soon and the nation's development would suffer a setback if the legislature failed to pass the general budget bill.
He denied that the move was part of his campaign strategy.
Making the announcement on behalf of the KMT, Ma said he had brought up the idea and had discussed it with KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (
Ma declined to comment on the KMT's strategies if the DPP refused to cooperate with it on the CEC law, reiterating his call on the DPP to make a goodwill gesture.
"We are not giving up the CEC law. I believe that the DPP don't want to let the Taiwanese people feel wronged, and they also love Taiwan," he added.
Responding to Ma's appeal, Wang said that Ma had spoken to him on phone about the matter yesterday afternoon.
"[Ma] told me that he wished the budget bill to be reviewed before the CEC bill, but I let him know that it would be hard to push the CEC bill through if the legislature passes the budget bill first. [Ma] should have understood this," Wang said.
Wang said what Ma had said was just his "personal wish," because "Ma is no longer in charge of the party headquarters, caucus or the legislature."
But Wang said that since talking to Ma, he had moved a cross-party negotiation meeting on the two bills ahead to this morning.
KMT legislative caucus whip Tseng Yung-chuan (
"If the DPP chooses not to boycott a vote on the CEC bill, we can finish the reviews of the budget bill and the CEC bill within half an hour," Tseng said.
In response, DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (
When approached for comment, Ker said it was only to be expected that Ma would give some thought to the budget bill, since it has been stalled in the legislature for half a year.
Ker said Ma was not showing the pan-green camp any goodwill by considering passage of the budget bill, but was doing so in response to political pressure as a result of the recent flooding brought about by heavy rain.
He said the DPP caucus would propose extending the legislative session should the budget bill remain blocked by the end of this legislative session.
Additional reporting by Flora Wang
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS