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Legislative speaker fears deadlock over KMT's CEC draft bill

Today's legislative session is likely to be stillborn as a result of the pan-blue camp's prioritization of its draft bill on the organization of the Central Election Commission (CEC), Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said yesterday.

Wang said he hoped the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) would agree to continue negotiating on the CEC draft while giving priority to other bills.

On Tuesday, the pan-blue-controlled Procedure Committee made the KMT-proposed enactment of the organic law of the Central Election Commission the priority for today's session.

Even though the commission came into existence when the KMT was in power, the party's caucus views the CEC as "illegal" because the organization of the commission follows the Organic Statute of the Central Election Commission, whose status is not that of a law.

The KMT caucus proposed enacting legislation of the CEC through an amendment to the statute, which would turn it into a law.

However, the KMT's proposal has caused controversy in the legislature because it proposes selecting the members of the CEC in proportion to the number of legislative seats held by each party.

The KMT caucus' insistence on pushing through the proposed amendment has previously led to deadlock as the DPP caucus insisted on reviewing the 2007 fiscal budget bill first.

The KMT's draft failed to pass in June as a result of a pan-green camp boycott.

Despite Wang's concerns, KMT caucus whip Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) said yesterday that the caucus would prioritize the CEC bill.

"We never said we would block other bills. We still have plenty of time [to handle other bills]," Tseng said.

Meanwhile, the Taiwan Solidarity Union caucus called on the KMT and DPP not to paralyze the legislature over the CEC draft issue.

Additional reporting by Jimmy Chuang
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