Mon, May 18, 2026 page3

• Legislators prepare for mostly symbolic no-confidence vote

  • Staff writer, with CNA
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  The opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan is to vote tomorrow on a rare, but largely symbolic, motion to impeach President William Lai (賴清德).

  The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) in December announced that they would try to impeach Lai after Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) refused to countersign amendments to a local revenue-sharing law the legislature passed on Nov. 14.

  The bill would have increased the allocation of public funds to local governments.

  

  The Legislative Yuan in Taipei is pictured in an undated photograph.

  Photo: Taipei Times

  Cho’s refusal to countersign the legislation was unprecedented and constitutionally untested, and meant that the amendments would not be promulgated by the president.

  KMT spokesman Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) has said the executive branch’s refusal to promulgate laws passed by the legislature “distorted” the Constitution and undermined the rule of law.

  Cho said that the amendments to the revenue-sharing law violated the constitutional principle of the separation of powers, and would cause “irreparable and serious harm” to national development.

  Because of an ongoing deadlock at the Constitutional Court, not countersigning the amendments represented the executive branch’s “final means” to correct what it considered legislative wrongdoing, he said.

  The decision did not amount to authoritarianism or executive overreach, because the Legislative Yuan still retained a constitutional check at its disposal, Cho said, referring to the legislature’s ability to initiate a no-confidence vote against the premier.

  Under normal circumstances, the Constitutional Court could be asked to rule on the constitutionality of the amendments to the local revenue-sharing law, or the premier’s refusal to countersign them, but the court, which normally has 15 justices, has only eight justices, two fewer than the legal threshold for adjudication.

  After the legislature rejected Lai’s justice nominees in December 2024, and in July last year, he has not submitted a new slate.

  According to the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China (中華民國憲法增修條文), a motion to impeach the president or vice president can be initiated with the backing of one-half of all lawmakers.

  The motion must then gain the approval of two-thirds of all lawmakers before being sent to the Constitutional Court, which must rule in favor with the support of two-thirds of sitting justices.

  While the KMT-led coalition and TPP hold a combined 62 seats in the legislature, they fall short of the 76-vote (two-thirds) supermajority required to refer the case to the Constitutional Court.

  Even if the motion somehow cleared the legislature, the lack of a quorum of sitting Constitutional Court justices would present an additional hurdle.

  Compared with the high threshold for impeaching the president, the Constitution makes it relatively easy for the legislature to remove the premier.

  Under the Additional Articles of the Constitution, the legislature can pass a no-confidence vote against the premier with a majority of all lawmakers, forcing the premier to step down.

  However, within 10 days of such a motion being passed, the president has the option to dissolve the legislature, which would trigger new legislative elections, to be held within 60 days.

  The legislature has opted not to pursue this option.
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