A consensus on constitutional amendments that would marginalize the National Assembly beginning May 20 was reached by the KMT and the DPP yesterday.
The deal would entail most of the functions of the Assembly being transferred to the Legislative Yuan.
Under the agreement, the Assembly would retain the power to propose the impeachment of the president and vice president, and vote on constitutional amendments. In both cases however, the initial proposals would have to be submitted by the Legislative Yuan.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
"From May 20, the National Assembly will maintain its title, but become a nominal, non-standing body," said Hong Yuh-chin (
KMT and DPP representatives agreed that deputies would be elected to the Assembly by proportional representation three months after an impeachment or constitutional reform is proposed.
The Assembly would meet for no more than one month on each occasion and would be disbanded as soon as the purpose of that meeting had been achieved.
How many deputies will be selected to serve the Assembly has not yet been decided.
Functions transferred to the Legislative Yuan include the right to elect the vice president when the office is vacant; initiating a proposal to recall the president or vice president; confirming Judicial Yuan, Examination Yuan and Control Yuan appointments after they have been forwarded by the president; and boundary changes.
After the reforms are made, the president will deliver his annual state-of-the-nation report to the Legislative Yuan, instead of the Assembly.
The Assembly will no longer have the power to initiate proposed amendments to the Constitution.
Both parties decided that an extraordinary National Assembly session will be convened by April 11 to process the reform, setting their sights on completing the amendments before the upcoming Assembly elections on May 6.
Chen Chin-te (陳金德), director-general of the DPP's caucus in the Assembly, said the DPP and KMT caucuses expected to push through the proposed amendments for a second reading by April 25, in order to finalize the amendments after a third reading and meet the May 6 deadline.
In future elections for the Assembly, Chen explained, the electorate would vote for a political party, as normal. This vote share would correspond with the number of deputies in the Assembly.
"Prospects for the reforms are very optimistic," Chen said, "But we have to race against time and each party needs to spend some time mobilizing its deputies to throw their support behind this."
Chen said the agreement, which took only three hours of negotiations, is consistent with public expectations.
Chen added the proposals should have no problem winning the support of the New Party, since they are very close to its stance of "maintaining the Assembly but not the deputies."
In response, New Party caucus leaders said they were pleased with the KMT's and DPP's moves to reform the Assembly, but felt there were still points that needed fine tuning.
Wang Kao-cheng (王高成), spoke-sman for the New Party caucus, said his party supported "freezing" the Assembly and said it was unnecessary for the Assembly to maintain any function at all.
"The power of referendum should be exercised by the people directly, so there is no need to waste any social costs on electing National Assembly deputies," Wang said.
However, Wang said his caucus would be flexible, for the present, so as not to upset the nation's political stability.
In addition, the New Party proposes expanding the existing conditions for impeaching the president to include "corruption and other irregularities."
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
RSS