Kaohsiung city councilors Huang Chie (黃捷) and Lin Yu-kai (林于凱) of the New Power Party (NPP) yesterday filed a lawsuit against the Kaohsiung City Council, saying that its decision to “draw lots for interpellation” was an obstruction of city councilors’ duties.
To help Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) clock out at 6pm, the city council on Thursday announced that councilors would have to draw lots to ask him questions.
Of the 51 people who had registered to ask the mayor questions on Thursday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) city councilors secured seven spots and Democratic Progressive Party city councilors secured five, while NPP and independent city councilors were unable to question Han.
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Times
During another draw yesterday, Huang secured the 18th spot, which gave her time to question Han. Lin obtained the 31st spot, but was not able to question Han due to time constraints.
After drawing numbers yesterday morning and lodging a protest in front of the council saying that the decision was undermining their ability to represent the people of Kaohsiung, the two councilors went to the Kaohsiung High Administrative Court to file a lawsuit in the afternoon.
Lin cited the Local Government Act (地方制度法) and said that interpellation is a legally guaranteed right for city councilors.
Photo courtesy of the New Power Party via CNA
The council’s decision violated that right and drawing lots could be considered an act of political manipulation, he said.
Lin said the decision has no legal standing, as it is not mentioned in the Regulations on Interpellation at the Kaohsiung City Council (高雄市議會市政質詢辦法).
Most councilors were not even involved in discussing the decision, which led to 20 out of 44 councilors yesterday being unable to question the city government, Lin said.
Huang said that rearranging the council schedule would speed things up and enable city councilors to do their duty.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was trivializing city council processes and denying other councilors time for honest interpellation while KMT councilors were slacking off, Lin said.
He said that he had asked the high administrative court to issue a preliminary injunction against the council’s decision to stop the city council from becoming a rubber stamp for the KMT.
Lin said the situation must be stopped to prevent other local councils from inappropriately limit city councilor rights.
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