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
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS