A bill to change recall election procedures was halted yesterday after a legislative session concluded early following scuffles between lawmakers.
While a vote was being held on the second reading of draft amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) proposed by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yeh Yuan-chih (葉元之), KMT lawmakers tried to keep Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers away from the podium.
Before the meeting proceeded with a discussion of details of the bill, the DPP and KMT caucuses sought to change the agenda.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The KMT caucus proposed prioritizing a draft amendment to the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) that would require signatories of recall petitions to submit a copy of their ID card.
The DPP caucus proposed addressing only three bills in the morning session, as a full session was to be convened in the afternoon to review Examination Yuan nominees.
The three bills were draft amendments to the Organizational Act of the Executive Yuan (行政院組織法), the Sports Industry Development Act (運動產業發展條例) — both crucial to the establishment of a ministry of sports — and the Act to Restore Victims’ Rights Infringed by Illegal Acts of the State during the Period of Authoritarian Rule (威權統治時期國家不法行為被害者權利回復條例).
The DPP caucus’ proposal was blocked.
The meeting was about to vote on the KMT caucus’ proposal to change the agenda when a group of DPP lawmakers, including Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱), Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) and Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆), sprinted to occupy the rostrum.
Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) declared a 10-minute break and left the room.
DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said that her caucus tried to prioritize the bills for establishing the ministry of sports, as they are relevant to the livelihoods of Taiwanese.
The KMT caucus attempted to force the passage of the draft amendment raising the threshold for recall petitions, disregarding that it was still under cross-party negotiation and causing the conflict, she said.
KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi said that DPP lawmakers occupied the rostrum and prevented Han from running the meeting.
“In which body in the world can lawmakers trample the dignity of the legislature by hindering the speaker from proceeding with democratic discussions and resolutions?” he asked.
Additional reporting by Lee Wen-hsin
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
US President Donald Trump said "it’s up to" Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be "very unhappy" with a change in the "status quo," the New York Times said in an interview published yesterday. Xi "considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing," Trump told the newspaper on Wednesday. "But I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that," he added. "I hope he doesn’t do that." Trump made the comments in
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
RSS