The motion to impeach President William Lai (賴清德) has been placed on the agenda for the Legislative Yuan’s session on Friday, after the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party today used their majority in the Procedure Committee to schedule it.
The Legislative Yuan’s Procedure Committee today met to set the agenda for the legislative sessions from Friday through Tuesday next week.
The agenda that passed included both the KMT and TPP impeachment proposals, while bills regarding cross-strait relations, national defense and resilience, and the Executive Yuan’s version of amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) were postponed.
Photo: Taipei Times file photo
The KMT and TPP would continue to discuss the impeachment procedure, which would include asking Lai speak at the Legislative Yuan, holding public hearings on the impeachment at the Legislative Yuan and related events around the nation, KMT caucus secretary-general Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said after the meeting.
The vote on the impeachment would take place around May 20 next year, as the KMT and TPP would have to reach a consensus, Lo said.
The KMT caucus proposed impeaching Lai for allegedly contravening Article 72 of the Constitution by refusing to promulgate amendments to the fiscal planning act passed by the Legislative Yuan.
The TPP caucus made a similar proposal, citing the Legislative Yuan’s right to initiate impeachment against the president under Article 4, Paragraph 7 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution (中華民國憲法增修條文).
The article states that the Legislative Yuan can initiate impeachment proceedings against the president if more than one-half of legislators agree. The impeachment would pass if two-thirds of legislators agree.
If passed, the case would then proceed to the Constitutional Court, where two-thirds of the justices must agree on the impeachment for it to be valid.
As the opposition parties do not have a two-thirds majority in the legislature, the impeachment would not pass when it comes to a vote, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Yi-chuan (王義川) said.
The KMT and TPP are insisting on going through the impeachment process to force Lai to speak to the legislature, looking for an excuse to openly criticize him, Wang said.
The Legislative Yuan should safeguard the country, rather than selectively following certain procedures and paralyzing parts of the government’s functioning, Wang said.
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