The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucuses would invite President William Lai (賴清德) to give a state of the nation address at the legislature following pre-legislative reform bill rules, opposition leaders said yesterday.
Their comments came one day after the Constitutional Court issued an injunction against a part of the controversial revisions to the Act Governing the Legislative Yuan’s Power (立法院職權行使法) and the Criminal Code, which were passed in late May, was signed by the president on June 24 and came into effect on June 26.
The President, the Executive Yuan, the Control Yuan and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus separately filed for a constitution interpretation and injunction to halt the implementation of the amended laws.
Photo: CNA
The DPP caucus said the opposition should heed the court’s warning, but added that Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) is entitled to negotiate the matter at the Legislative Yuan.
Earlier that day, TPP caucus whip Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said the court’s ruling on amendments to Article 15 of the act did not abolish the right of lawmakers to request the president’s presence.
This means the Legislative Yuan can ask questions that the president may choose to respond to, he said, adding that Lai should make good on the promises he made on the campaign trail to work with lawmakers.
Huang also accused the government of judicial impropriety, saying: “The Constitutional Court trampled the law to serve the DPP.”
That DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) knew the court would issue an injunction and when it would happen showed there was a breach of confidentiality rules, he said.
The court’s decision went against the precedent established by Constitutional Interpretation No. 585, he added.
The grand justices’ ruling failed to address the standing issue raised by the Legislative Yuan during the statement of opinion, showing the decision had been pre-prepared, Huang said.
On the sidelines of a panel on legislative reform in New Taipei City, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said the DPP’s foreknowledge of the ruling was evidence of impropriety.
The power to investigate and call witnesses to hearings is the same right and privilege enjoyed by lawmakers in democracies around the world, he said.
Asked about Chu and Huang’s comments, DPP caucus secretary-general Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said the DPP party anticipated the court’s ruling because hundreds of lawyers said the bill amounted to an unconstitutional power grab.
The timing of the decision was transparent to anyone with a passing familiarity of the court’s schedule, she said.
On the TPP and KMT’s proposed invitation, Wu said the court’s injunction permits lawmakers to invite the president to the legislature, but not to dictate the terms of the exchange.
“The ruling flashed a stop sign that the opposition should do well to heed before charging headlong across the railroad,” she said.
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