Portions of controversial amendments to tighten requirements for recalling officials and Constitutional Court procedures were passed by opposition lawmakers yesterday following clashes between lawmakers in the morning, as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members tried to block Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators from entering the chamber.
Parts of the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) and Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法) passed the third reading yesterday.
The legislature was still voting on various amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) as of press time last night, after the session was extended to midnight.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Amendments to Article 4 of the Constitutional Court Act require 10 judges to attend court sessions and nine judges to agree before legislation can be declared unconstitutional.
If the number of justices falls below the mandated 15, the president must nominate candidates to fill the roster within two months, amendments say.
If the number of justices recusing themselves from a review are seven or more, all remaining justices should participate in the review, it states.
Photo: I-Hwa Cheng, AFP
Amendments to the recall act state that those proposing a recall and those signing petitions must provide a print copy of the front and back of their National Identification Card.
If the information on the print copy is illegible, the petition should be nullified.
The amendments also stipulate that those found guilty of using someone else’s identification or forging an ID for a recall petition may face up to five years in prison or a fine of up to NT$1 million (US$30,589).
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
At present, campaigners only have to present the ID numbers and registered addresses of endorsers of the recall petition to local election commissions, a process critics argue has been abused.
The Ministry of the Interior yesterday stated its opposition, saying that requiring print copies of an ID card poses risks to privacy rights, and the amendment’s lack of public support affects the citizenry’s right to recall government officials.
The KMT also demanded that the central government provide a more significant percentage of funding — NT$661.2 billion — to local governments, which opponents said might affect the central government’s budget and social welfare policies.
The ruling DPP believes the act should not be amended, while the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) took the middle ground, proposing that the central government provide NT$27 billion in additional funding for local governments.
DPP legislators late on Thursday evening entered the chamber by breaking windows and barricaded the doors to prevent KMT legislators from entering.
At about 8:30am yesterday, KMT legislators began to try to force open doors around the podium.
They broke through the door and entered the chamber at around 9:13am, which led to verbal and physical clashes.
Meanwhile, TPP legislators held banners in the chamber that read “hold the meeting,” “no violence” and “democracy is blocked.”
At 11:40am, Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) made his way from the meeting room to the legislative chamber, but DPP legislators blocked his way at the door.
KMT legislators pulled DPP legislators away from the door, and Han was escorted to the chamber by security guards, but he was still pushed and shoved to the ground.
Citing the disorder, Han called a hand vote, in accordance with Article 35 of the Rules of Procedure of the Legislative Yuan (立法院議事規則), inciting cheers from KMT legislators.
The KMT would not allow President William Lai (賴清德) to go on a violent path, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said, accusing the DPP lawmakers of reversing Taiwan’s democratic progress.
The DPP is implementing “martial law” in the Legislative Yuan, TPP caucus whip Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) told a news conference in the morning.
The KMT and the TPP were using their “majority dictatorship” to try to pass amendments that could bring irreversible harm to Taiwan’s democracy, so the DPP had to take action to safeguard Taiwan, DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said.
The coming weeks are crucial to the nation’s survival, DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) wrote on Facebook on Thursday night.
There would be no more recalls if the amendments are instated, because it would allow the KMT and the TPP to “cooperate” with China by proposing any unconstitutional bill they want to “mess up” Taiwan, he said.
Any unconstitutional bill would go unchecked, as amendments to the Constitutional Court Procedure Act would prevent the Grand Justices from interpreting the Constitution, while amendments to the government expenditures act would leave no budget for the central government to implement any social welfare policy, Ker said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have declared they survived recall votes to remove them from office today, although official results are still pending as the vote counting continues. Although final tallies from the Central Election Commission (CEC) are still pending, preliminary results indicate that the recall campaigns against all seven KMT lawmakers have fallen short. As of 6:10 pm, Taichung Legislators Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) and Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔), Hsinchu County Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘), Nantou County Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) and New Taipei City Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) had all announced they
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday visited Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), as the chipmaker prepares for volume production of Nvidia’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chips. It was Huang’s third trip to Taiwan this year, indicating that Nvidia’s supply chain is deeply connected to Taiwan. Its partners also include packager Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密) and server makers Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達). “My main purpose is to visit TSMC,” Huang said yesterday. “As you know, we have next-generation architecture called Rubin. Rubin is very advanced. We have now taped out six brand new
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant