An opposition lawmaker has proposed changes to the Martial Law Act (戒嚴法) and related regulations that would require the legislature to ratify any presidential declaration of martial law within 56 hours to be valid.
According to Article 1 of the act, which has remained unchanged since 1948, any declaration of martial law by the president must be submitted to the Legislative Yuan within one month for ratification. If declared during a parliamentary recess, ratification must occur after the legislature reconvenes.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄) in a statement issued yesterday said that current provisions pose a threat to Taiwan’s democracy.
Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times
“This one-month period creates a gray area where the president could abuse the powers, giving them ample time to target political opponents,” Hsu said.
Hsu’s proposed amendments would require the president to formally submit the declaration to the Legislative Yuan within 24 hours of announcing the measure, with lawmakers required to convene a meeting within eight hours to review the president’s request.
Lawmakers would then need to ratify the martial law declaration within 24 hours after that, the proposal said.
Failure to meet these deadlines would automatically nullify the president’s martial law order, she said.
The proposal, which Hsu said would also require amending the Act Governing the Legislative Yuan’s Power (立法院職權行使法), is expected to be listed for discussion by the legislature’s Procedure Committee today.
The draft amendments come several days after the DPP was criticized for apparently likening South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s situation to the difficulties it faced in the Legislative Yuan.
In a quickly-deleted post on social media platform Threads on Tuesday night last week, the DPP said that Yoon declared martial law “to protect the free constitutional system.”
The DPP deleted the post within 20 minutes and replaced it with another statement criticizing Taiwan’s martial law era under KMT rule from 1949 to 1987, adding that the party “by no means intends to support martial law,” without referring to the original post.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said that Hsu’s proposed amendments were not urgent, adding that President William Lai (賴清德), who is also DPP chairman, has clearly stated that “democracy cannot regress.”
“Right now, we are focused on budget reviews... No one is considering martial law except the KMT,” Wu said.
“The KMT should not push this issue too far,” she added.
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