President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is scheduled to refer the nomination list of his Control Yuan and Examination Yuan nominees to the legislature today.
It requires a simple majority of legislators to confirm the nominees.
Former finance minister Wang Chien-shien, tapped to head the country’s supreme watchdog, yesterday said that he and former Democratic Progressive Party legislator Shen Fu-hsiung (沈富雄), nominated to serve as Wang’s deputy, would soon visit legislative causes.
He, however, emphasized their visits were merely a courtesy call and not an attempt to seek support.
Wang had reportedly told Control Yuan nominees to refrain from visiting the legislature and leave the matter to him and Shen.
As there has been a lot of domestic political wrangling, the Control Yuan — the country’s supreme supervisory body tasked with monitoring and arbitrating matters concerning elected officials and senior civil servants — has been empty since the term of office of previous members expired on Jan. 31, 2005.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-controlled legislature repeatedly rejected former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) nomination lists.
The terms of the current Examination Yuan members expire on Aug. 31.
Their successors are to be sworn in on Sept. 1.
Meanwhile, Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) has not yet decided on nominations for the National Communications Commission (NCC) members, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Vanessa Shih (史亞平) said yesterday.
Shih said while Liu would refer his nomination list to the legislature for confirmation before June 30, Liu has not yet come to a decision on the nominees.
Shih made the remarks in response to a story published in yesterday’s Chinese-language China Times.
The report claimed that current NCC Chairman Su Yeong-chin (蘇永欽) had expressed the intent to leave the post and that he was likely to be appointed as a grand justice.
The report also alleged that NCC spokesmen Howard Shyr (石世豪) and Liu Zong-de (劉宗德) and commissioner Hsieh Chin-nan (謝進男) were likely to retain their posts.
Shih yesterday said that she knew nothing about the speculation and that they were still in the process of vetting of potential candidates.
The NCC has seven members, who chose the chairman and vice chairman among themselves.
NCC members serve a four-year term but can also be re-appointed.
Rain is to increase from Wednesday morning as Severe Tropical Storm Kong-Rey approaches, with sea warnings to be issued as early as tomorrow afternoon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. As of 8am, Kong-Rey was 1,050km east-southeast of the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春) heading in a northwesterly direction toward Taiwan, CWA Forecast Center Director Lin Po-tung (林伯東) said. Rainfall is to increase from Wednesday morning, especially in northern Taiwan and Yilan County, he said. A sea warning is possible from tomorrow afternoon, while a land warning may be issued on Wednesday morning, he added. Kong-Rey may intensify into a moderate typhoon as it passes
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Taiwan yesterday issued warnings to four Chinese coast guard vessels that intruded into restricted waters around the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen Islands, according to the Coast Guard Administration (CGA). The four China Coast Guard ships were detected approaching restricted waters south of Kinmen at around 2 pm yesterday, the CGA’s Kinmen-Matsu Branch said in a statement. The CGA said it immediately deployed four patrol boats to closely monitor the situation. When the Chinese ships with the hull numbers "14512," "14609," "14603" and "14602" separately entered the restricted waters off Fuhsing islet (復興嶼), Zhaishan (翟山), Sinhu (新湖) and Liaoluo (料羅) at 3 pm, the Taiwanese patrol
MUCH-NEEDED: After China demonstrated its capabilities to deploy vertical launching systems, Taiwan needs air defense systems such as NASAMS, a defense expert said The US’ approval of exports of three advanced air defense missile systems to Taiwan signified NATO’s goodwill toward the nation, a Taiwanese defense expert said. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency on Friday announced the US$1.16 billion sale of the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) and the US$828 million sale of AN/TPS-77 and AN/TPS-78 radar turnkey systems. The NASAMS is a network that uses ground-launched Air Intercept Missile (AIM)-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) to intercept hostile aircraft, drones and cruise missiles. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), director of defense strategy and resources at the state-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said