Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers yesterday did not occupy the speaker’s podium at the legislature in Taipei, but a review of the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program bill was nevertheless stalled as the KMT caucus proposed more than 300 motions to change the agenda and every motion was put to a vote.
After blocking legislative proceedings by occupying the speaker’s podium on Friday last week and on Tuesday, the KMT caucus changed tactics, proposing 300 motions to change the agenda which were all voted down by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers.
Each motion was voted on three times, as the KMT caucus asked for a roll call vote to be conducted, a proposal that was put to vote as the DPP caucus expressed its dissent.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
After the vote on whether to conduct a roll call was rejected by the DPP, a vote on whether to allow the proposed motion to be passed took place.
After that was rejected, the KMT caucus then asked for another vote.
That vote dragged on until noon, after which the KMT caucus continued to stall proceedings by proposing motions to change the agenda.
Deputy Legislative Speaker Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌), who chaired the session, called for a cross-caucus negotiation, but the session never resumed.
Earlier, the KMT caucus held a news conference and criticized Premier Lin Chuan (林全) for alleging that a “minority of people” are trying to mislead the public and let the nation remain idle.
KMT caucus secretary-general Alicia Wang (王育敏) said many people, including former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), Pingtung County Commissioner Pan Men-an (潘孟安), the New Power Party, the People First Party and the Social Democratic Party, have taken issue with the development program, adding that its boycott was a last resort to ensure taxpayers’ money would not be squandered.
The only physical scuffle yesterday took place in the morning when the speaker’s podium was occupied briefly by DPP lawmakers, but not without a tussle.
Before the meeting started at 9am, the lawmakers were already lining up to enter the chamber and rushed in when the doors opened at 7am.
DPP lawmakers successfully got to the podium and sat there until Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) arrived.
KMT Legislator Jason Hsu (許毓仁) on Facebook accused DPP Legislator Wu Ping-jui (吳秉叡) of pushing him during the rush, which led to him falling and injuring his elbow.
Wu denied that he pushed Hsu and said Hsu tripped himself during the chaotic rush to the podium.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,