Complying with a request by opposition lawmakers, the Executive Yuan yesterday approved a draft referendum law (
"I'm afraid it would sabotage the check-and-balance mechanism between the executive and legislative branches stipulated in the Constitution if the Cabinet's draft passes into law," Ma told reporters after the weekly closed-door Cabinet meeting yesterday morning.
According to Ma, the draft fails to specify its legal basis, which is articles 17 and 136 of the Constitution.
"In addition, the Cabinet risks trampling on the Constitution if it seeks to initiate a referendum because such a prerogative requires a legal revision to the Constitution," Ma said.
Eligible members of the electorate and the head of state can also file a request.
"If the government was authorized to call a referendum, it could veto any laws or resolutions passed by the legislature which it felt unhappy about," Ma said. "It would not only undermine the check-and-balance system between the executive and legislative branches but also result in political unrest."
The Constitution mandates that if the government wants to overturn a law or resolution passed by the legislature that it deems difficult to implement, the Cabinet must send a request to the president within 10 days of receiving the written text of the law from the legislature. If the president agrees, he must then send the request to the legislature.
Lawmakers are required to reach a final decision within 15 days of receiving the request. If more than half of the 225-member legislature vetoes the request, the Cabinet must accept the passed law or resolution. The law or resolution will then go into effect three days after it is promulgated by the president.
But if lawmakers fail to reach a final decision before the deadline, the passed law or resolution automatically becomes invalid.
Ma said Switzerland was a good example of a country where the government does not have the right to initiate a referendum.
"Only nine European countries' governments enjoy the right to call a referendum, but it's clearly stipulated in their constitutions," Ma said.
Minister without Portfolio Hsu Chih-hsiung (
"It's an oxymoron that only people can initiate a referendum in Switzerland because its Constitution mandates that a quorum of 50,000 eligible voters can file a petition or eight out of its 26 states can do so if they manage to collect sufficient signatures to call a referendum," Hsu said, suggesting that to file the petition did not necessarily mean a referendum must be held. "Apparently, Mayor Ma has mixed up a petition with a referendum."
Hsu also said that the Cabinet's draft does not contradict the Constitution because legislative approval would be needed for Cabinet-initiated referendums.
Hsu also dismissed Ma's concerns that the draft would encourage the government to settle certain disagreements between the Cabinet and the legislature via popular votes instead of proposing a veto motion in the legislature.
"While a veto motion is for settling intractable differences between the executive and legislative branches via a showdown vote in the legislature, a referendum is to settle a controversial issue with a less drastic measure -- a popular vote," Hsu said.
Echoing Hsu's argument, Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (
"What we're offering here is citizens' inalienable right to direct democracy as guaranteed by the Constitution, which is an alternative to prevent partisan confrontation in the legislature," he said.
The approval of the draft law was made in response to a request by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus. The caucus had threatened to boycott cross-party negotiations unless the Cabinet sent in its own version of the referendum law instead of endorsing a version presented by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
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