Sat, May 29, 2004 page3

• Legislative downsizing bill held over until July

  NO SURPRISE The pan-blue and pan-green camps exchanged accusations of delaying a stalled bill that would expedite making changes to the Constitution

  • By Debby Wu / STAFF REPORTER
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  The constitutional amendment bill on legislative downsizing failed to pass in the legislature yesterday as the alliance of independent lawmakers demanded further inter-party negotiation on the bill.

  The legislature's failure to pass the bill did not come as a surprise, as the caucuses still have not managed to reach consensus during several inter-party negotiation sessions.

  The alliance also made clear that it intends to propose a motion that negotiations be continued next Thursday.

  The bill will now have to wait until late July before the legislature can vote on it again. The delay has made it impossible for members of the ad hoc National Assembly to be elected to ratify the bill in December.

  The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) blamed the failure on the pan-blue caucuses and said that it does not rule out the possibility of requesting an extra legislative session in July to handle the amendment.

  "The pan-blue caucuses need to take responsibility for the failure to pass the bill. They have worked closely with the alliance for a long time, but did they try hard to communicate with the alliance during this period?" DPP caucus whip Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) said.

  "We do not exclude the possibility of calling for an extra session in July when the bill finishes its four-month negotiation period, so that we can handle this bill together with the 10 key infrastructure projects," Tsai said.

  The pan-blue caucuses meanwhile accused the DPP of causing the delay and said that they would move to hold an extra legislative session to deal with the bill in July.

  "President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) promised to push through the bill on legislative downsizing before the election, but after the election everything changed. The Taiwanese public should open their eyes and watch closely," KMT policy committee convener Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) said.

  People First Party caucus convener Hsieh Chang-chieh (謝章捷) pointed out that when Chen met with the legislative speaker a few days ago, he proposed delaying the constitutional amendment and suggested reducing the number of legislative seats to 150 instead of the proposed 113 seats.

  Hsieh said the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) yesterday opposed the `single-member district' design and obstructed the amendment.

  "Yet the DPP tolerated the TSU's act, so it is very clear that the pan-green camp is just pretending," Hsieh said.

  The pan-blue caucuses said they would call for an extra legislative session in July, and that they would not object to the DPP's proposal to handle the 10 key infrastructure projects.

  But they said the legislature should simultaneously handle the proposals for the establishment of legislative investigation committees into the election-eve assassination attempt and the national security mechanism.

  The TSU opposed the proposal for an extra legislative session in July and said that they would be pushing for the creation of a new constitution.
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