The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday again failed in its attempts to push forward an amendment that would prohibit Taiwanese nationals who hold permanent residency in another country from assuming public office.
The amendment was blocked by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
At yesterday’s deliberation session on legislative amendments, the KMT voted down a motion from the DPP legislative caucus to put its draft amendment to the Nationality Act (國籍法) on the agenda.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The amendment, which passed the legislature’s Home and Nations Committee on March 9 with support from lawmakers across party lines, states that people in public office must prove they have renounced their foreign permanent residency within six months of taking office.
Public servants are currently required to give up their foreign citizenship a year after taking office.
DPP Legislator Kao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) called on the KMT not to delay review of the bill, saying that people would finally find out “what the KMT is hiding behind its procrastination strategy.”
Legislative regulations state that a bill on which lawmakers failed to reach consensus during the preliminary review stage can be brought to the legislative floor to proceed to a second and third reading in a vote one month after it has been passed by legislative committees.
“It was not because of the content of the amendment that [the KMT] voted against the bill. Rather, we opposed changing the agenda that had been set by the legislature’s Procedure Committee,” KMT Legislator Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) said in response to Kao’s objections.
KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇), one of the lawmakers who had initiated the amendment, said the amended regulations, if passed, would help ease public doubts over public servants’ national allegiance.
The DPP has lashed out at President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), saying the US green card he held while studying in the US in the 1970s was still valid while he was campaigning for the presidential election.
Ma has said his green card had been invalidated automatically in the mid-1980s when he used a US visa rather than the green card to enter the US.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
ANNUAL EVENT: Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in Daan Park, with an event zone operating from 10am to 6pm This year’s Taipei Floral Picnic is to be held at Daan Park today and tomorrow, featuring an exclusive Pokemon Go event, a themed food market, a coffee rave picnic area and stage performances, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said yesterday. Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in the park as attractions, with an exclusive event zone operating from 10am to 6pm, it said. Participants who complete designated tasks on-site would have a chance to receive limited-edition souvenirs, it added. People could also try the newly launched game Pokemon Pokopia in the trial area, the department said. Three PokeStops are
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
RSS