The Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) caucus whips yesterday challenged the accuracy of a news analysis published in the Chinese-language China Times yesterday and offered their resignation if the newspaper could prove its allegations.
The China Times said the DPP was pre-occupied with electioneering in the pushing of its name change campaign. At the same time it has ignored the fact that political wrangling between parties will only make the passage of the government's fiscal budget and arms procurement bills more difficult the newspaper said.
The article said that the DPP had failed to prioritize people's livelihoods and placed too much importance on name change issues.
Given the fact that the pan-blue camp constitutes the legislative majority, passing legislation for the name change campaign is impossible, the story said.
"The DPP will eventually sacrifice the budget bill and the nation's competitiveness and the public will have to suffer the consequences," the report said.
DPP caucus whip Wang Sing-nan (王幸男) said the report was "a great insult" to the caucus.
Showing a press conference a chart demonstrating the legislative agenda of several legislative plenary sessions between January and this month, Wang said it was the pan-blue camp which had prioritized the amendment to the Organic Law of the Central Election Commission (中選會組織法) and related bills concerning reconstruction of military communities.
Using the legislative session on March 2 and March 5 as examples, Wang said the budget bill could be reviewed in the plenary session only after the Central Election Commission (CEC) amendment was reviewed first.
The budget bill and the CEC amendment have been put on hold due to both sides' disagreement over whether CEC members should be chosen according to the proportion of legislative seats held by each party.
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