Print

Mail

wiki links

Presidential election 2008: 8 days to go: Scuffle at Legislative Yuan leaves cameraman injured

A verbal clash erupted between Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Yu Jan-daw (余政道) yesterday morning, and a photojournalist fell in the scuffle and hit his head.

Lu, the convenor of the legislature's Financial Committee, yesterday, dismissed the meeting around 9:15am after the other committee head -- KMT Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) -- and three other KMT members of the committee -- Alex Fai (費鴻泰), Chen Chieh (陳杰) and Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) -- did not show up, one day after Lo and his fellow KMT legislators clashed with DPP supporters and staffers when they barged into DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh's (謝長廷) campaign headquarters late on Wednesday afternoon.

Right after Lu's announcement yesterday morning, Yu challenged her decision as Lu was leaving the meeting room.

A CTV camera man fell and hit the back of his head while filming the conflict. The reporter, surnamed Huang, was sent to National Taiwan University Hospital's (NTUH) emergency care unit after complaining of nausea and vomiting. A NTUH release stated that he was suffering from nausea and elevated blood pressure when he arrived at the hospital.

An MRI scan did not show any signs of internal bleeding and his vital signs were stable, said the release. At press time, the reporter was still being kept in the hospital for observation.

At a press conference later yesterday, Lu said she dismissed the meeting in a bid to appease Wednesday's furor and allow the KMT caucus time to review the legislators' behavior.

Lu then apologized to the public and KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for the behavior of the four legislators.

"We're willing to take responsibility and accept criticism. I hereby apologize to the public and to Mr. Ma on behalf of the committee's KMT legislators to show our sincere regret," she said.

Lu added that what happened at Hsieh's headquarters on Wednesday was the "personal behavior of some legislators and did not represent the behavior of the entire committee or the KMT caucus."

The DPP caucus demanded yesterday that the four KMT legislators be sent to the legislature's disciplinary committee for punishment for breaking into Hsieh's campaign headquarters.

The caucus claimed the KMT legislators violated the Criminal Code (刑法) and Legislators' Conduct Act (立法委員行為法) for the intrusion and for "coercing" Minister of Finance Ho Chih-chin (何志欽) to join them in the action.

Additional reporting by Angelica Oung and CNA
This story has been viewed 1139 times.