President Chen to submit nominees for grand justices

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) is expected to submit a list of eight nominees for grand justices of the Judicial Yuan to the legislature for confirmation by the end of next month, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said yesterday.

The eight nominees are to succeed the eight grand justices whose terms of office will expire at the end of September, including Judicial Yuan President Weng Yueh-sheng (翁岳生) and the vice president post left vacant since last April by Cheng Chung-mo(城仲模). Cheng had resigned over alleged relations with a female assistant professor at the National Yunlin University of Science and Technology.

terms of office

According to the additional articles of the Constitution, eight grand justices, including the president and the vice president of Judicial Yuan who were appointed in 2003, shall serve four years, while the rest of the grand justices shall serve eight years.

The Chinese-language China Times yesterday quoted an anonymous source as saying that incumbent Grand Justice Lai Ying-jaw (賴英照) would be appointed to replace Weng, while a new nominee Fan Kuang-chun (范光群), currently the secretary-general of the Judicial Yuan, would be designated as vice president of the Yuan.

Wang yesterday refused to comment on the rumored candidates for the Judicial Yuan's president and vice president, but said the next president of the Judicial Yuan would be selected from the seven incumbent grand justices whose terms of office expire in 2011. The next vice president would be one of the eight new nominees, according to Wang.

hasty

A group of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers yesterday criticized Chen for not giving the legislature sufficient time to review his nominees of grand justices.

KMT legislative caucus whip Hsu Shao-ping (徐少萍) told a press conference that it would be "hasty" for the legislature has to finish the review within a month, calling on Chen not to submit his list of nominees "at the last minute."

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) accused the KMT of using the time as an excuse to boycott the review of the president's grand justice nominees.

new session

"I had heard that the KMT would try to put off the review process as long as possible because they wanted to reserve the nomination for KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) when he is elected president next year," he said.

Later yesterday, after having a cross-party negotiation meeting, Wang said that legislative caucus whips across party lines had all agreed to review the president's nominees on Sept. 7 when the new session starts.