Decreasing the numbers of members of the legislature and increasing the quality of judges are key to the country's constitutional reform, said attendees of a forum aimed at crafting a new vision of a constitutional system yesterday.
"A poll result showing that over 70 percent of respondents endorsed halving the legislative seats of the country convinced us that there is sufficient support for the reduction," Hawang Shiow-duan (
Hawang suggested that the ideal legislature be comprised of 160 to 200 seats.
The country's single nontransferable vote (SNTV) system generates unnecessary political tension as candidates vie for a limited number of party nominations in one constituency, Hawang said. The parliamentary reform, she continued, must include a complete rewriting of parliamentary rules and regulations.
New rules that govern things such as committee formation would improve the nation's confidence in parliamentary discipline, she said.
Hawang proposed that only senior lawmakers be allowed to host legislative committees. Limits on lawmakers taking on other employment during their tenure should be put in place to avoid conflict of interests, she said.
Wellington Koo (
A merit system for the judiciary, including a regular review mechanism, should be established as a substitute for the current lifetime employment, Koo said. An inability to dismiss incompetent members from the judiciary is the result of the lack of such a system.
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
Taiwan plans to cull as many as 120,000 invasive green iguanas this year to curb the species’ impact on local farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture said. Chiu Kuo-hao (邱國皓), a section chief in the ministry’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, on Sunday said that green iguanas have been recorded across southern Taiwan and as far north as Taichung. Although there is no reliable data on the species’ total population in the country, it has been estimated to be about 200,000, he said. Chiu said about 70,000 iguanas were culled last year, including about 45,000 in Pingtung County, 12,000 in Tainan, 9,900 in
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
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