Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators yesterday proposed a re-election to select a new speaker as the first item on the legislative agenda, saying that Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) delaying the submission of two bills to President William Lai (賴清德) is illegal and unconstitutional.
After nearly three hours of cross-party discussion, Deputy Legislative Speaker Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) moved to suspend the proposal, saying it had already been handled by the Procedure Committee on Tuesday.
The DPP was seeking to invoke Article 8 of the Regulations on Electing the Legislative Speaker and Deputy Speaker by Legislators (立法委員互選院長副院長辦法), which states that if more than one-third of legislators propose a re-election and more than two-thirds of legislators agree, a re-election can be initiated.
Photo: Liu Wan-lin, Taipei Times
On Dec. 20, the Legislative Yuan passed the third reading of controversial amendments to the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選罷法), the Act Governing Allocations of Government Revenue and Expenditure (財政收支劃分法) and the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法).
Although the three bills were passed on the same day, the Constitutional Court bill was sent to Lai to promulgate on Dec. 24, while Han on Friday last week delayed the submission of the other two bills at the written request of two Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) committee conveners, the DPP said.
Han’s actions are illegal and unconstitutional, and whether the proposal succeeds or not, it reflects the DPP’s standpoint and fundamental principles — if it does not call for his dismissal now, the DPP might as well “shut up shop,” DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said.
DPP legislators Tsai Yi-yu (蔡易餘) and Wang Yi-chuan (王義川) arrived at the Legislative Yuan in the middle of the night to submit the proposal for yesterday’s meeting.
Allowing individual committee conveners to override the Constitution and legislative procedure to dictate whether a bill should be transmitted contravenes the Constitution and disrupts government operations, they said.
These actions contravene Article 72 of the Constitution, which states that “statutory bills passed by the Legislative Yuan shall be transmitted to the president of the republic and to the Executive Yuan,” the DPP added.
Han has openly aligned with the KMT by delaying the submission of the two bills until the Constitutional Court bill was sent to the president, an act of political manipulation that contravenes Article 3 of the Organic Act of the Legislative Yuan (立法院組織法), which states that a speaker must maintain order based on the principle of neutrality and fairness, the DPP said.
The KMT also twice occupied the speaker’s podium, conducted votes by show of hands and engaged in physical altercations to push through the third reading of the Constitutional Court bill, Ker said.
Whether the KMT was purposefully stirring up trouble or not, yesterday’s proposal is to be recorded in the Legislative Yuan Gazette, and officials, including the conveners who blocked the transfer and Legislative Yuan Secretary-General Chester Chou (周萬來), are to be referred to the Control Yuan for impeachment, and legal action is to be taken, Ker said.
The KMT said the DPP’s action is tantamount to spilling the “coffee of reconciliation” on Lai, who invited Han for a coffee before he is to depart for Washington to attend US president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration later this month.
The DPP has no intention of reconciling, it said, adding that Lai is not able to control the DPP caucus.
The KMT also accused the DPP of using the democratic system as a tool to attack the opposition, asking: “Is this what Lai means by greater democracy?”
Additional reporting by Chen Cheng-yu, Lee Wen-hsin, Shih Hsiao-kuang and Fion Khan
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