The National Assembly is scheduled to ratify the constitutional amendments passed by the legislature last August on Tuesday. A second round of voting will be allowed if parties feel their assembly members deviate from their party's stance.
The rules were settled by the assembly's presidium, which held its second meeting yesterday afternoon. After a five-hour discussion, the steering committee decided that the 300 members of the assembly will exercise their power to confirm the constitutional amendments on Tuesday, following a report on the amendment package delivered by Deputy Legislative Speaker Chung Jung-chi (
Parties or alliances who think the first round of voting has "major flaws" can file a motion to request a second round of voting if they manage to collect signatures from 30 assembly members.
The 11-member presidium will then discuss the proposition and a second round of voting will be ordered if the presidium endorses the petition.
The result of the second round of voting will be final.
Although Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) presidium member Annie Lee (
In order to give smaller parties the opportunity to express their stance on the constitutional amendments, however, all 12 political parties and civic leagues with seats in the assembly will be able to participate in a forum at 2pm on Monday to explain their position.
Each representative will be allowed seven minutes to explain his or her party's views on the constitutional amendments.
The number of delegates the parties can send to Monday's forum is allocated in proportion to the seats each party or alliance has in the assembly.
The Democratic Progressive Party has six representatives, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has six, the TSU three, and the People First Party three. Groups with less than five assembly seats will have only one representative.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
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