In a move immediately condemned by the KMT and all of the presidential candidates, National Assembly deputies voted yesterday to extend their term of office by more than two years while at the same time freezing future elections.
According to the amendment, future Assembly deputies will be selected through a proportional representative system, in which seats will be divided up by the ratio of votes each party wins in legislative elections.
In a further development near press time, the Assembly voted to extend the term of the current legislature beyond its current mandate, which ends in January 2002, to June of the same year.
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMESN
The KMT's party headquarters was last night still vowing to block the term extension amendment at its third reading. The Assembly's debate was expected to proceed through to this morning in a final marathon session aimed at completing final voting on all 27 amendments. Officials from the DPP, meanwhile, said earlier in the day that they needed to consider the merits and drawbacks of the extension amendment before deciding what to do next.
However, DPP Secretary-general Yu Shi-kun said after the vote that the party's central standing committee would discuss the case and decide whether to punish its delegates.
"At least we succeeded in finalizing the first stage of abolishing the Assembly, by adding the proportional representative system into the Constitution. Therefore, the DPP should not condemn its party's delegates, as they are supporting the term extension," said Yu.
A further amendment giving the Assembly the right to draw up its budget and set up its own organizational procedure also passed its second reading yesterday, but was later quashed by another bill. Such powers currently rest with the legislature.
A total of 168 affirmative ballots were cast out of a possible 223 for the term extension amendment, with only 53 in dissent and 2 invalid.
The KMT holds 180 seats of the current Assembly, while the DPP has 88. The New Party has 40 delegates and 8 are independent. The numbers weren't even needed, however, to point out the obvious: some of the DPP's deputies were standing against their party's platform by supporting the term extension amendment.
The DPP's strife paled in comparison with that faced by the KMT, however.
KMT secretary-general John Chang (
But Assembly speaker Su Nan-cheng (
"Delegates are not children. I will take all the responsibility for the results at the voting session," Su said.
The Sun Yat-sen Building on Yangmingshan where the Assembly meets looked at times like the scene of a siege yesterday, as the New Party, which has strenuously opposed the amendment from the beginning, mobilized supporters to camp outside.
Over a hundred supporters, led by the party's presidential candidate, Li Ao (
Their pressure tactics counted for little in the end, however, as the Assembly decided to hold the vote by secret ballot. At this stage, New Party deputies stepped on the stage to protest, saying they would introduce a bill to have the speaker recalled.
KMT caucus leader Chen Ming-jen (陳明仁), meanwhile, immediately called an emergency meeting to implore delegates to follow party policy. But the DPP caucus announced at the same time that it would take every opportunity to accomplish its reform goals.
As the second reading vote got underway, New Party delegate Chin Chi-hua (
"The speaker should be neutral, but he is violating the law!"
Chin was soon dragged away by other delegates as the voting got under way.
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