Amendments proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to raise the threshold for passing rulings on the Constitutional Court are aimed at weakening the nation’s democratic system, the leaders of the New Power Party (NPP) and Taiwan Statebuilding Party said yesterday.
The bill to amend the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法), proposed by KMT Legislator Weng Hsiao-ling (翁曉玲) and supported the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), would require a two-thirds majority to pass a ruling. Currently a simple majority of the 15-member court is needed to pass a judgement.
At a news conference outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei, NPP Chairwoman Claire Wang (王婉諭) said the amendments would undermine the separation of power among the branches of government.
Photo: CNA
Calling the proposal a “barbaric action” that would paralyze the Constitutional Court and sabotage the nation’s basic political framework and democratic system, Wang urged KMT and TPP legislators not to proceed with the amendments.
She was accompanied by members of the Taiwan Statebuilding Party, the Taiwan Obasang Political Equality Party, the Green Party Taiwan and the Social Democratic Party, as the legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee convened to deliberate the bill.
In the previous legislative session, Weng drafted an amendment specifying that “the total number of incumbent justices” referred to in the act is defined as “15,” as stipulated in Article 5 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China (中華民國憲法增修條文).
In the current session, she proposed the new proposal, which would raise the threshold for passing a ruling of constitutional interpretation from a simple majority to two-thirds of the justices, which would require a quorum of at least 10 justices and at least seven agreeing on a ruling to issue a judgement.
If KMT and TPP legislators pass the amendments and later refuse to confirm new justices, leaving the Constitutional Court unable to form a quorum and meet the two-thirds threshold, it would “render the nation’s judiciary impotent,” undermine the separation of powers among the branches of government and subvert Taiwan’s constitutional democracy, Wang said.
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