Although some progress has been made in reaching a consensus on a series of "non-political" bills over the past few days, controversial bills concerning next year's presidential election are still on the pan-blue camp's list of priorities for the last two days of the extra legislative session scheduled to end on Friday.
The pan-blue-dominated Procedure Committee yesterday determined the sequence of the 17 bills to be reviewed at the plenary session tomorrow and Friday, following an agenda proposal made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
The KMT proposal placed at the top of the agenda a budget bill for this fiscal year concerning state-owned enterprises and governmental nonprofit funds.
Second on the pan-blue camp's agenda is an amendment to the Organic Law of the Central Election Commission.
Next on the list was review of an amendment that would require the establishment of an absentee system, followed by an amendment that would require the commission to recount votes in a presidential election if the margin of difference is less than 3 percent, and an amendment that would prohibit referendums from being held simultaneously with national elections.
Also on the legislature's agenda was an amendment that would effectively clear KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (
The agenda sparked frustration from the pan-green camp.
"Was this extra session held just to deal with the presidential election? If Ma really cared about the livelihoods of fishermen, farmers and workers as he has said during his long-stay [trip to towns in the south], why didn't you [the pan-blue camp] prioritize bills concerning the public's livelihood?" DPP Legislator Kao Chien-chih (
Kao brought up a DPP agenda proposal that prioritized review of a bill to establish a national pension system, the NT$77.3 billion special budget for public construction projects, an amendment to raise monthly pensions for elderly farmers and a bill to set up a lobby system.
The committee rejected the agenda.
Lawmakers across party lines have reached a consensus on a bill regarding the national pension system, stipulating that the nation's 3.86 million people who are not covered by the insurance systems for public servants, teachers and the military, the labor insurance system, or the pension system must be provided with coverage.
A bill that would entail creating a lobby system also gained the backing of lawmakers across party lines during negotiations yesterday.
In order to ensure transparent lobbying, the bill would require lobbyists to register with an authority.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
As the legislature is currently controlled by the pan-blue camp, the KMT-backed amendment would ensure a pan-blue majority in the election commission by requiring that its members be nominated by parties in proportion to the parties' number of legislative seats.
The commission is currently appointed by the premier.
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