An ad hoc committee next year hopes to present viable options to legislators to relocate the Legislative Yuan, Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫堃) said on Sunday last week.
You said in an interview that he has instructed the committee to prepare the options — with an eye to present them by 2023 — as he has supported such ideas since he became speaker on Feb. 1, 2020.
Since 1960, the Legislative Yuan has been housed in a former dormitory of what was Taipei Second Girls’ Senior High School during the Japanese colonial period.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The building is leased to the legislature by the Taipei City Government and many of its adjunct buildings are of historical significance, posing a problem for potential expansion.
The committee has had two meetings and is to provide legislators with options once it has assessed opinions on the issue from different sectors and industries, You said.
Legislative Yuan Secretary-General Lin Jih-jia (林志嘉) said that the legislature should move as soon as possible.
A different image, location and environment would presage a change in mindset for legislators and the public’s expectations of them, Lin said.
Only a big shift at the legislature would induce a change in its systems and culture, he said.
On other issues, You said that the government would have achieved partial success if it pushes through a referendum for a constitutional amendment to lower the legal age for voting to 18.
Even if such a referendum did not pass, the government would have shown that there is an issue with the high threshold for constitutional amendments, he said.
Lowering the voting age is among several constitutional amendments that have been proposed at the legislature.
An ad hoc constitutional amendment committee was formed on Oct. 6, 2020.
Any proposed constitutional amendments would have to receive the backing of at least one-quarter of the 113 lawmakers to be forwarded to the procedural committee, which would assign them to the 39-member constitutional amendment committee for review.
For a proposal to be approved, it must be backed by at least half of the members of the constitutional amendment committee at a meeting attended by at least one-third of its members.
Then, it would have to be approved by at least three-quarters of the legislature, with at least three-quarters in attendance.
Should that threshold be met, the proposal would be put to a public referendum.
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