The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus threatened yesterday to kill or freeze next year's Executive Yuan budget to protest what the caucus called the Cabinet's "willful" decision to press ahead with a referendum to reclaim the KMT's stolen assets.
The dispute arose after the Executive Yuan's Petition Committee ruled on Nov. 20 that the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) proposal to hold a referendum to reclaim the KMT assets is legitimate and that the DPP can proceed with a second-phase signature drive after the identities of the referendum's initiators are verified by household registry authorities.
The committee made the ruling on the grounds that the Referendum Review Committee had failed to make a decision on the case within the legal time limit of one month -- by Nov. 4.
However, insisting that the deadline for the case was Nov. 25, the Referendum Review Committee ruled on Nov. 24 that the DPP's proposal violated the constitutional principles of equality and non-retroactivity and was therefore invalid.
KMT Legislator Pan Wei-kang (
However, the Executive Yuan ignored the KMT's request and instructed the Central Election Commission (CEC) to go ahead with the subsequent procedure and have local household registry authorities review the list of initiators submitted by the DPP, Pan said.
"The action of the government is way too bullish," she said at a press conference yesterday. "[The KMT caucus] will not rule out freezing the Executive Yuan's budget for next year."
Su Chi (蘇起), another KMT legislator, said it was "lawless" for the DPP and Executive Yuan to push for the referendum while disregarding the ruling by the Referendum Review Committee.
Su said he suspects the DPP's move is aimed at paving the way for its plan to hold another referendum jointly with the 2008 presidential election in order to boost its chances of victory.
If the DPP is allowed to defy the Referendum Review Committee this time, the DPP is likely to push for a referendum for a new constitution or Taiwan independence next, Su said.
The DPP is planning to hold the referendum on the KMT's assets along with the legislative elections in December next year.
The Referendum Law (
After the proposal passes a preliminary screening by the CEC, the initiators are required to further collect within six months signatures from more than 5 percent of the number of eligible voters in the last presidential election.
The number of eligible voters totaled 16.57 million in the 2004 presidential election; 82,536 signatures are required in the first phase and 825,359 in the second phase.
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
RSS