Independent Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐) and Taiwan Statebuilding Party Legislator Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟) are to join the Constitutional Amendment Committee as the Legislative Yuan prepares for the commencement of the constitutional reform process.
Through cross-party negotiations, it was decided that seats on the 39-member committee would be allocated in direct proportion to the number of legislative seats held by political parties, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials said yesterday.
After an internal deliberation, the DPP decided to reserve two of its 22 seats for Lim and Chen, DPP caucus whip Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) said.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has 14 seats, the Taiwan People’s Party two and the New Power Party (NPP) one, he said.
Lim, 44, and Chen, 35, are seen as voices of Taiwan’s younger generation, and have close links with deep-green groups in the nation.
Lim, the lead vocalist of the heavy-metal band Chthonic, quit the NPP in August last year over differences with party leadership and won re-election as an independent legislator.
Chen, a first-term legislator, did post-production work for movies, including Kano, the 2014 movie based on the true story of the Kano baseball team in Chiayi during the Japanese colonial period.
“Amending the constitution is an important mission for this legislative session [which opens today], and it is also what the public expects of us... I am glad to join the committee, as this is an opportunity to start Taiwan’s constitutional reform,” Lim said.
Chen wrote on Facebook that he is determined to join the battle and looks forward to fighting members of Chinese political parties.
Work on constitutional reform is expected to prioritize lowering the age of majority from 20 to 18, which would make them eligible to vote in elections or referendums, and to marry without parental consent; and to abolish the Control Yuan and the Examination Yuan.
The committee is also expected to review proposals to lower the thresholds for approval of constitutional reform initiatives by the legislature and through a public referendum.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
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