The Judicial Reform Foundation yesterday urged the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) to halt the Legislative Yuan proceedings immediately on the grounds that their proposed amendments for legislative reforms could be illegal and unconstitutional.
The legislature had passed the second reading of amendments to the Act Governing the Legislative Yuan’s Power (立法院職權行使法) on Friday last week, Tuesday and Friday.
The foundation said in a statement on Friday night that the drafts submitted by the KMT and the TPP contained multiple points of contention and that the version of the amendments could be unconstitutional.
Photo: Carlos Garcia Rawlins, Reuters
Legislative conflicts could grow stronger if the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) were to file for constitutional interpretation and demand a provisional injunction against the amendments, it said.
The addition of a clause under the Criminal Code to provide a legal basis to administratively fine others for holding the legislature in contempt might exceed the parameters of the Council of Grand Justices Interpretations, it said.
Amendments regarding powers of inquiry were too vague, failing to provide legal bases for procedures summoning individuals to give testimony, it said, adding that the amendments regarding an individual refusing to testify were also vague.
Amendments that said individuals attending a testimony hearing could ask for, per agreement of the Legislative Speaker, legal counsel or professional aid was procedurally flawed and infringed on a person’s right to legal representation, it said.
Overall, the amendments granting the legislature the power of inquiry fail to strengthen the legislature’s self-restraint and would only lead to a vicious cycle of endless bickering, administrative fines and further legal suits to dispute the fines, it said.
On requiring the president to answer questions fielded by legislators, the foundation said that constitutionally the president does not answer to the legislature, adding that if the president were to answer, it would turn into an interpellation.
Having the president interpellated on the floor would cease being a state of the nation report, and would also go against Taiwan’s political system, the foundation said.
The foundation urged rational dialogue and said that it supported legislative reforms, but could not condone the passage of amendments without due deliberation.
On Friday, Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) announced the end of the day’s session at 11:28pm, after a long day reviewing bills amid protests from DPP lawmakers, and thousands of demonstrators outside the Legislature Yuan in Taipei.
Both sides held press conferences outside the legislature to explain their respective messages to the public, with TPP lawmakers holding signs with QR codes for people to scan and access a TPP-created Google document which contained files explaining the opposition’s proposed parliamentary reforms.
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