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."
SEA WARNING LIKELY: The storm, named Gaemi, could become a moderate typhoon on Wednesday or Thursday, with the Taipei City Government preparing for flooding A tropical depression east of the Philippines developed into a tropical storm named Gaemi at 2pm yesterday, and was moving toward eastern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Gaemi could begin to affect Taiwan proper on Tuesday, lasting until Friday, and could develop into a moderate typhoon on Wednesday or Thursday, it said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued as early as Tuesday morning, it added. Gaemi, the third tropical storm in the Pacific Ocean this typhoon season, is projected to begin moving northwest today, and be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday, the agency said. Today, there would likely
CHIPS AND DEFENSE: Trump said the US had lost its chip business and Taipei should pay it for defense, and added that ‘we’re no different than an insurance company’ Taiwan-US relations are solid, and both sides are in agreement that peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific region are everyone’s concern, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday following comments by former US president Donald Trump that Taiwan “should pay” for US defense. Taiwan is thankful to the US for supporting Taiwan’s bid to participate in international organizations, Cho told a news conference in Taipei. “I know the people very well, respect them greatly. They did take about 100 percent of our chip business,” Trump told Bloomberg on June 25 in an interview that was published on Tuesday. “I think
SHOW OF SUPPORT: Taiwan has been one of the largest buyers of US defense equipment, supporting American businesses and jobs, US lawmakers said Taiwan has been paying for its own defense, a US Department of State official said on Wednesday, adding that purchases of military equipment are important to the US economy and for ensuring regional security. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller was asked at a news conference about comments by former US president Donald Trump, the Republican nominee in November’s US presidential election, who said during an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek that Taiwan should pay Washington for its defense needs. “The purchases that they [Taiwan] have made not only are important, we believe, to regional security, but are important to the United States economy,”
END OF SESSION: Other changes that passed involved the removal of restrictions on group tours to China and raising the sentence for people found guilty of child abuse Legislators yesterday passed the third reading of amendments to Article 49 of the Electricity Act (電業法), which stipulate that at least half of the electricity price evaluation committee should be made up of civilian representatives, and a resolution to invite President William Lai (賴清德) to present a state of the nation address at the Legislative Yuan. They also passed a motion proposed by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) that the government remove restrictions on group tours to China. On the last day of this year’s first legislative session, the legislators attempted to deal with dozens of bills