Legislative reform will be the single most important issue after Saturday's polls and a referendum could be used to ensure it gets top priority, President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen said yesterday that more than 80 percent of the public supports measures such as halving the number of legislative seats and creating single-member electoral districts.
Other ideas include lengthening the terms of lawmakers from three years to four and having legislative and presidential elections fall in the same year.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE
And if the KMT and New Party don't back the proposed reforms, Chen said, he would take the issue directly to the public through a referendum.
"If reform becomes a nationwide movement, then no individual or political party can say `no' to this trend," Chen said. "If there is any political party opposing [the reforms], we'll have no choice but" to resort to a referendum.
Currently, Taiwan lacks a public referendum law that would allow voters to decide public policy issues directly.
Though the KMT and New Party have yet to announce their stance on proposed legislative reforms, the two parties should heed public opinion, Chen said.
"The threshold for a constitutional amendment is very high, requiring the consent of three-fourths of the lawmakers present," the president said.
"If these two political parties reject reforms, then a referendum law -- the passage of which would only require half of the lawmakers present -- would have to go ahead first."
Asked about his proposed "cross-party alliance for national stabilization," Chen said the group would be a "decision-making mechanism" of 120 members that would include members from each political party. "But these 120 people will elect representatives, who will be engaged in collective decision-making."
"As for myself, I will not play any role, but focus on performing my presidential duties," Chen said. "But this alliance can make proposals on a variety of issues, for example, nominations for premier and the Cabinet or even the new speaker of the Legislative Yuan."
Asked for his opinion on former president Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) proposed "Taiwan Advocates" (群策會) group, Chen said he would back any organization that assists the nation's development and brings stability to its politics. Chen also plans to attend the group's founding ceremony on Monday.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
FIRST TRIAL: Ko’s lawyers sought reduced bail and other concessions, as did other defendants, but the bail judge denied their requests, citing the severity of the sentences Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Taipei prosecutors in December last year asked the Taipei District Court for a combined 28-year, six-month sentence for the four cases against Ko, who founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The cases were linked to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project and the mismanagement of political donations. Other defendants convicted on separate charges included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who was handed a 15-year, six-month sentence; Core Pacific
RSS