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Lawmakers eye extra session, differ on agenda

Legislators across party lines yesterday called for an extended legislative session, but each camp had a different agenda on the table.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus wants to push for passage of the two government budgets that remain stalled in the legislature, namely, the NT$3.3 trillion (US$99.2 billion) budget for state-owned enterprises and governmental non-profit funds and the NT$77.3 billion budget for public construction projects, DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said.

The DPP caucus also hopes to review an amendment to the Income Tax Law (所得稅法) that would cancel tax exemptions for military officials, public servants and primary and junior high school teachers, he said.

As to when the extra legislative session would be held, Ker said the party would not make a decision until the caucus meeting this coming week.

Meanwhile, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus has set its mind on passing an amendment to the Organic Law of the Central Election Commission (CEC, 中央選舉委員會組織法), which the party caucus originally prioritized over the government fiscal budget bill in the spring session.

The KMT has proposed that the 17 members of the CEC should be recommended by political parties in proportion to the number of seats they hold in the legislature, with no single party allowed to control more than two-fifths of the total.

However, the DPP opposes any party-based election system for the CEC, contending that such a practice violates the "division of power" provision set forth in the Constitution.

The KMT caucus only agreed to decouple the CEC bill from the budget after KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on Monday urged the caucus to allow the budget bill to be reviewed ahead of the commission bill.

The CEC bill failed to clear the legislature before the legislature went into recess yesterday.

CEC spokesman Teng Tien-yiou (鄧天祐) said yesterday that the tenure of the commission's 19 members was set to expire yesterday.

Since the amendment to the CEC bill did not pass on Friday, the commission would operate in accordance with current regulations, Teng said.

Current regulations provide that the CEC should have 11 to 19 members, appointed by the president, with a tenure of three years.

As of yesterday, some 80 legislators of the KMT, the People First Party and the Non-Partisan Solidarity Union had endorsed the KMT's request of an extended session to handle the CEC bill, KMT legislative whip Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) said.

The Constitution stipulates that the request should be supported by one-fourth of the legislature. There are currently 217 lawmakers.
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