President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday called the KMT's bluff, saying that if the KMT refused to cooperate with the government, the only way out of the current political deadlock would be for it to pass a vote of no confidence in the premier and thus force a legislative election.
It is widely believed that the KMT would lose any election held in the short term.
Speaking at the opening of the DPP's Ninth Annual Congress in Taipei, the president contrasted Taiwan's constitutional system with France's semi-presidential system, and appealed to opposition parties not to interfere with the president's right to appoint the premier and the Cabinet.
"On the basis of our country's Constitution, if the Legislative Yuan refuses to accept the new Cabinet, it should pass a vote of no confidence in the premier," he said.
He said that under France's Constitution "cohabitation" arose when the president was obliged, following his own party's defeat in a legislative election, to nominate the leader of the majority legislative party to form a government and serve as prime minister.
"Taiwan's current political situation is totally different from that of France," Chen said, "Our new government is hemmed in by an existing legislature."
Chen said that the president of France could dissolve parliament in order to seek a popular consensus by holding a new parliamentary election, but that Taiwan's president does not have such a constitutional power.
He said that on the basis of Taiwan's Constitution he could only dissolve parliament and call an election -- and, indeed, would be obliged to do so -- if the opposition parties regarded the new government as so lacking in public support that they were willing to subject their judgement to that of the people by passing a vote of no confidence in the premier.
"Otherwise, any expedient aimed at sharing power will not necessarily allow the real spirit of party politics to manifest itself. It would only give rise to social instability and antipathy on the part of the people," the president said.
Chen reaffirmed that the new government was a "government for all the people" (全民政府), which transcended many traditional boundaries to include senior figures from different parties, both sexes and different ethnic origins.
The KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and other party lawmakers recently called for a coalition government, which, they said, should be organized by the majority party in the Legislative Yuan.
Responding to the president's remarks, KMT spokesman Jason Hu (胡志強) immediately said publicly that the KMT did not have any plan to pursue a vote of no confidence in the premier for the time being and he complained that it was inappropriate for the president to "downgrade" the Legislative Yuan by suggesting that he represents the new public mandate.
"All lawmakers represent the public during their statutory elected term," Hu said.
"I would like to ask President Chen whether he will regard himself as a representative of the old public mandate after the lawmakers' election next December," Hu said.
Meanwhile, other opposition party leaders echoed the president's remarks, saying that Chen fully understood the KMT's weakness and that it would not dare to raise a motion of no confidence .
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The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so