The Legislative Yuan at the last minute yesterday canceled a scheduled visit by Chen Chu (陳菊), who has been nominated as Control Yuan president, and other nominees to visit lawmakers, citing “intelligence” it received and other arrangement issues.
In the run-up to a legislative vote on July 17, when lawmakers would vote on President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) Control Yuan nominations, Presidential Office Secretary-General Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) was to lead a delegation on a courtesy visit to the legislature in Taipei at 1:30pm.
However, 10 minutes prior to their scheduled arrival, Legislative Yuan Secretary Kung Ping-chieh (孔秉杰) announced that the visit was canceled due to difficulties arranging venues and that his office had received “intelligence.”
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
He did not elaborate on what the “intelligence” entailed.
A group of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers led by KMT caucus whip Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) had assembled at an entrance, apparently seeking to block Chen’s access to the building — Chen did not arrive.
The KMT caucus opposes Tsai’s nomination of Chen, saying that her qualifications to lead the branch are stained by cases being investigated by the Control Yuan from when Chen was Kaohsiung mayor.
During her time as mayor from 2006 to 2018, the Control Yuan launched 58 investigations into her administrative team, with 30 resulting in censures and three in impeachments, the KMT has said.
Moreover, Tsai should withdraw the nominees, as her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has advocated abolishing the Control Yuan, while former vice premier Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) of the DPP in his time as a lawmaker used vulgar language to criticize the branch, Lin said.
Now that the DPP is in power, it has nominated its members, which exposes its inconsistency and is apparent cronyism, Lin said.
If Chen is to become Control Yuan president, she would be “handling her own corruption cases,” which would severely undermine the nation’s constitutional system, the KMT caucus said.
Separately yesterday, the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) said that its legislators would not meet with the nominees, as it would be unnecessary, TPP caucus whip Lai Hsiang-ling (賴香伶) said.
The TPP caucus has initiated steps to abolish the Control Yuan and the Examination Yuan with constitutional amendments, making the visit even more unnecessary, Lai said.
Additional reporting by Wu Su-wei
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