Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday urged nominees for legislative speaker and deputy speaker to brief his party’s eight legislators-at-large-elect on their stance on the legislative reform proposals the TPP made earlier this month.
The TPP is hoping that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) nominees would visit the TPP’s legislative caucus office and share their views on the proposals, Ko said after meeting with the party caucus at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
SWING VOTE
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The TPP won eight seats in the Jan. 13 elections, and it holds a critical swing vote as neither the DPP, with 51 seats, nor the KMT, with 52 seats, won an absolute majority in the 113-seat legislature.
TPP lawmakers on Jan. 15 made four proposals that they said were aimed at legislative transparency and oversight, and asked the two major parties’ legislative speaker candidates to endorse them.
The proposals called for revising rules on penalties for officials who give false testimony at hearings, prohibiting agencies from blocking lawmaker access to documents, preventing lawmakers from acting on bills that constitute a conflict of interest and requiring the legislative speaker to detail their use of a special stipend.
The TPP appeal had publicly been ignored by the DPP and KMT until Wednesday, when the KMT candidate for speaker, Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), its 2020 presidential candidate, wrote on Facebook that many suggestions about reforming the legislature had been made.
“These proposals are sensible and should be taken seriously,” Han wrote.
He said he welcomed and would support bills aimed at pushing reforms and providing effective checks and balances of the ruling party.
Ko yesterday acknowledged criticism that the speaker cannot push reforms on their own through the legislature, but he said the speaker candidates should at least make their stances on the issues clear in front of the TPP caucus.
CAUTION
KMT Secretary-General Justin Huang (黃健庭) said the KMT caucus would need to assess the situation before it decides whether to answer Ko’s call, having heard that the TPP caucus is mulling different strategies for the speakership election.
The KMT may be proceeding cautiously after a failed attempt in November to create a unified KMT-TPP presidential ticket to dislodge the DPP from power, which the KMT blamed on Ko.
Legislative Speaker You Si-kun of the DPP who is widely expected to run again said that he would visit any caucus that invites him to elaborate on his ideas and use such opportunities to canvass support.
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