The legislature today voted against a motion to reconsider a Constitutional Court Act amendment bill by 62 to 51 votes after it was sent back by the Executive Yuan last week.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) later said the party is to seek an injunction to halt the bill’s enactment and request a Constitutional interpretation.
Deputy Legislative Speaker Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) announced the result of the vote this afternoon, with 62 voting against reconsidering the bill and 51 voting in favor of reconsidering the bill. There were no invalid votes.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), with the support of two independent lawmakers, holds 54 seats in the 113-seat legislature, while the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) holds 8 seats. The ruling DPP holds 51 seats.
President William Lai (賴清德) is to evaluate all remedy options that are legal and constitutional in order to protect people’s rights, Presidential Office spokesperson Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said.
The opposition parties had proposed that Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) not be invited to give a report on the law to the legislature during the Committee of the Whole Yuan earlier today. The motion passed with 60 to 51 votes.
The legislature later convened the Committee of the Whole Yuan, during which the opposition lawmakers said the amendments would make legal procedures more stringent, bringing Taiwan closer to Western democratic countries.
DPP Legislator Tsai Yi-yu (蔡易餘) said the amendment, which is unconstitutional in itself, would make the Constitutional Court the most “regressive” one in history.
The Executive Yuan regrets that the legislature conducted the vote in the absence of Premier Cho, Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said today.
The vote came after the Executive Yuan last week submitted a formal request to the Legislative Yuan to reconsider the bill, which passed its third reading on Dec. 20.
The amendments to the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法) stipulate that at least 10 grand justices need to be present to hear a case, while nine would be needed to back a ruling of unconstitutionality.
The Constitutional Court usually has 15 justices but currently only has eight justices after seven completed their terms on Oct. 31 last year with the vacancies yet to be filled.
The previous regulations did not stipulate a minimum number of justices required to hear a case, requiring instead at least two-thirds of justices, with rulings determined by a majority vote.
The number of justices can fluctuate due to terms expiring or other events and the time it takes to replace them.
The acting president of the Judicial Yuan Shieh Ming-yan (謝銘洋) today said amendments to the act would “create problems” for the operation of the Constitutional Court.
The Executive Yuan is to consult scholars and experts to decide on the next steps to maintain the normal operation of the constitution system, Lee said.
Additional reporting by Chung Li-hua, Shih Hsiao-kuang and Lery Hiciano
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
COUNTERMEASURE: Taiwan was to implement controls for 47 tech products bound for South Africa after the latter downgraded and renamed Taipei’s ‘de facto’ offices The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still reviewing a new agreement proposed by the South African government last month to regulate the status of reciprocal representative offices, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Asked about the latest developments in a year-long controversy over Taiwan’s de facto representative office in South Africa, Lin during a legislative session said that the ministry was consulting with legal experts on the proposed new agreement. While the new proposal offers Taiwan greater flexibility, the ministry does not find it acceptable, Lin said without elaborating. The ministry is still open to resuming retaliatory measures against South
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
RSS