The opposition parties should call for a vote of no confidence against Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) instead of passing a censure motion and requesting that the Control Yuan impeach him, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members said yesterday.
Opposition lawmakers can propose a no-confidence vote under Article 3 Item 3 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution (中華民國憲法增修條文), DPP caucus chief executive Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) said.
If passed, the president could dissolve the Legislative Yuan and a general election would follow.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
During a Judiciary and Organic Laws Committee meeting yesterday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) legislators approved a motion to censure Cho, who refused to countersign an amended revenue allocation bill.
TPP caucus whip Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) and KMT Legislator Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) also requested that the Control Yuan impeach Cho.
Cho’s refusal to countersign the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) was “unprecedented” and had disrupted constitutional governance, the opposition said.
However, DPP Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said that was not true, citing as an example then-premier Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村) in 1992 refusing to countersign then-president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) attempt to promote General Chiang Chung-ling (蔣仲苓), resulting in Lee withdrawing the promotion.
“The KMT and the TPP are afraid of the legislature getting dissolved, as they would have to face voters again and the new election could result in fewer seats for them,” Chung said. “There would also likely be no seat for the TPP, and they would lose their combined majority.”
Asked about Huang’s proposal to ask the Control Yuan to impeach Cho, Chung called it a joke.
“With the support of KMT and TPP lawmakers, Huang last year led the move to drastically cut the Control Yuan’s budget by 97 percent. So it is quite laughable, now, for him to ask the same body to conduct a probe and impeach the premier,” he said.
DPP officials also rebuted KMT and TPP legislators’ description of Cho as a “rogue premier” who contravened the Constitution by not countersigning the bill and President William Lai (賴清德) a “dictator” who was “subverting Taiwan’s constitutional democracy.”
“It is the two opposition parties who abused their majority in the legislature to undermine Taiwanese democracy and the pillars of the nation’s Constitution,” DPP spokeswoman Han Ying (韓瑩) said. “They rammed through numerous malevolent legislature amendments, hollowing out central government finances and slashing most ministries’ budgets, resulting in difficulties in regular operations and providing public services.”
“Throughout the process, the Executive Yuan had repeatedly provided explanations, and pointed to problems and issues that would arise from such actions. However, the opposition parties still pushed through these amendments and dismissed all forms of appeal for reconsideration,” Han said.
The only way to resolve the political impasse was to seek a constitutional interpretation, but that route was also shut down by opposition parties, who amended the law to raise the quorum for the Constitutional Court and rejected all nominations for new grand justices, so the court has been unable to convene, she said.
“Due to this situation, and the ruling government has no recourse and cannot seek a constitutional interpretation. Therefore, the only route left is for Cho not to countersign,” she added.
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