Several Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators yesterday protested the absence of People First Party (PFP) members on the list of nominations for Control Yuan posts presented by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), threatening to veto some of the nominees.
The list, announced by Ma on Friday, included people from across the political spectrum and from civil associations.
Although PFP Legislator Lee Fu-tien (李復甸) was listed, members proposed by the PFP, including former legislators Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄) and Feng Ting-kuo (馮定國) and PFP deputy secretary-general Ma Chieh-ming (馬傑明), were absent.
KMT legislators who had left the PFP to join the KMT resented Ma’s exclusion of members recommended by the PFP and urged him to explain his reasoning to PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜).
“The Presidential Office did not consult us before presenting the list and it can’t expect us to support all the nominees on the list,” said KMT Legislator Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞), a former PFP member.
KMT Legislator Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) also challenged the list, complaining that Ma should not ignore Liu, Feng and other PFP members’ efforts to push for a KMT-PFP merger.
Hsieh also said that Ma should choose nominees such as former Taiwan Solidarity Union legislator Chien Lin Hui-chun (錢林慧君) over pan-blue members.
Lee said other former PFP members in the legislature had already reached a consensus that they would not support all the nominees.
Ma is scheduled to refer the nomination lists to the Legislative Yuan tomorrow for confirmation of the Control Yuan and Examination Yuan posts. The legislature will complete the review by July 11.
According to the Law Governing the Legislative Yuan’s Power (立法院職權行使法), the nominations pass only if approved by 50 percent of legislators.
The Taipei Summer Festival is to begin tomorrow at Dadaocheng Wharf (大稻埕), featuring four themed firework shows and five live music performances throughout the month, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said today. The festival in the city’s Datong District (大同) is to run until Aug. 30, holding firework displays on Wednesdays and the final Saturday of the event. The first show is scheduled for tomorrow, followed by Aug. 13, 20 and 30. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Disney Pixar's movie Toy Story, the festival has partnered with Walt Disney Co (Taiwan) to host a special themed area on
Aftershocks from a magnitude 6.2 earthquake that struck off Yilan County at 3:45pm yesterday could reach a magnitude of 5 to 5.5, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Seismological Center technical officer Chiu Chun-ta (邱俊達) told a news conference that the epicenter of the temblor was more than 100km from Taiwan. Although predicted to measure between magnitude 5 and 5.5, the aftershocks would reach an intensity of 1 on Taiwan’s 7-tier scale, which gauges the actual effect of an earthquake, he said. The earthquake lasted longer in Taipei because the city is in a basin, he said. The quake’s epicenter was about 128.9km east-southeast
BE CAREFUL: The virus rarely causes severe illness or death, but newborns, older people and those with medical conditions are at risk of more severe illness As more than 7,000 cases of chikungunya fever have been reported in China’s Guangdong Province this year, including 2,892 new cases last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said it is monitoring the situation and considering raising the travel notice level, which might be announced today. The CDC issued a level 1 travel notice, or “watch,” for Guangdong Province on July 22, citing an outbreak in Foshan, a manufacturing hub in the south of the province, that was reported early last month. Between July 27 and Saturday, the province reported 2,892 new cases of chikungunya, reaching a total of 7,716
STAY VIGILANT: People should reduce the risk of chronic liver inflammation by avoiding excessive alcohol consumption, smoking and eating pickled foods, the physician said A doctor last week urged people to look for five key warning signs of acute liver failure after popular producer-turned-entertainer Shen Yu-lin (沈玉琳) was reportedly admitted to an intensive care unit for fulminant hepatitis. Fulminant hepatitis is the rapid and massive death of liver cells, impairing the organ’s detoxification, metabolic, protein synthesis and bile production functions, which if left untreated has a mortality rate as high as 80 percent, according to the Web site of Advancing Clinical Treatment of Liver Disease, an international organization focused on liver disease prevention and treatment. People with hepatitis B or C are at higher risk of
RSS