A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker yesterday proposed that the number of Examination Yuan members be cut by half to reduce government costs and facilitate clean politics.
DPP Legislator Wong Chin-chu (翁金珠) said the positions of Examination Yuan members had become a type of reward offered by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to party loyalists, with 12 of the 19 nominees for the positions affiliated with the KMT.
With the Legislative Yuan already having been downsized from 225 to 113 seats, it is unreasonable to maintain the current size of the government branch overseeing the civil service, Wong said.
As the Constitution does not stipulate how many members should be appointed to the Examination Yuan, KMT legislators can address the issue immediately by helping to screen out half of the candidates nominated by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), the lawmaker said.
The Legislative Yuan yesterday began reviewing the Examination Yuan nominations and will vote on them on Friday. The KMT, which controls more than 70 percent of the seats in the legislature, plays a decisive role in the process.
KMT Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) said the party’s lawmakers were in a difficult position, because if all the Control Yuan nominations were approved, it would have given the public the impression that the legislature was simply a rubber stamp.
However, after the legislature voted down unqualified candidates, KMT legislators were criticized as defiant, Lo said.
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