Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng’s (王金平) attorney yesterday withdrew a provisional injunction lawsuit filed with the Taipei High Administrative Court, saying the Taipei District Court’s ruling in favor of Wang’s provisional injunction would ensure Wang keeps his position as head of the legislature.
“Because the Taipei District Court’s ruling [on Friday] in favor of Wang’s provisional injunction is enough to protect Wang’s KMT membership and his legislator status, we do not have to waste judicial resources by seeking an administrative provisional injunction,” Wang’s lawyer, Hsu Ying-chieh (許英傑), said outside the court.
Shortly after the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) revoked his membership over his alleged role in pressuring a prosecutor to drop an appeal against another lawmaker, Wang sought a provisional injunction from Taipei District Court against the KMT’s decision and an injunction from the Taipei High Administrative Court that requested the legislature not to void his status as a lawmaker.
Photo: Lee Lee-fa, Taipei Times
The Taipei District Court handed down a ruling on Friday allowing him to retain his membership rights in the party for the time being, but the KMT has vowed to appeal the court’s decision to approve Wang’s injunction.
“We have our own tempo on this lawsuit, and we do not worry about the KMT lodging a counter-appeal,” Hsu said.
The district court ruled on Friday that Wang would be able to retain his membership and rights as a KMT member after submitting a guarantee of about NT$9.38 million (US$314,300). Wang’s attorneys submitted the funds to the district court within the hour.
The district court at 9am yesterday issued the provisional injunction orders to the KMT headquarters, the Central Election Commission and the Legislature Yuan.
KMT spokesman Yin Wei (殷瑋) said the party received the district court’s provisional injunction order at 9:50am.
Yin said that the party will hire more attorneys for the court battle.
The commission submitted a notification to the Legislative Yuan on Wednesday revoking Wang’s status as legislator after it received a document from the KMT saying that Wang was no longer a party member.
Central Election Commission Vice chairman Liu I-chou (劉義周) said that the district court’s ruling had no effect on Wang’s status as a lawmaker being rescinded by the commission.
However, Liu said that after the ruling, the legislature might not void Wang’s status as requested by the commission and thus the commission will not be able to announce a new lawmaker to replace Wang.
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