The People First Party (PFP) legislative caucus yesterday threatened to file an injunction with the Taiwan High Court to stop the inauguration of President Chen Shui-bian (
"Chen and Vice President Annette Lu (
The pan-blue alliance has filed one lawsuit to declare the election a fraud and another to demand a recount of the ballots.
While the recount lawsuit was aimed at suspending Chen and Lu's election on the grounds of fraud, the annulment lawsuit was targeted at the Central Election Commission and seeks to nullify the March 20 election.
PFP lawmaker Hsu Yuan-kuo (
If Chen and Lu insisted on being sworn in as the nation's new leaders -- as required by law -- Chang said that the PFP would file an injunction.
In addition to the judicial process, Chang said that the caucus was also considering amending the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Law (
According to Philip Chou (
Chou refused to predict how the court would rule on the request, saying that the controversy was unique in the nation's history.
The PFP legislative caucus yesterday also filed a lawsuit against Presidential Office Secretary-General Chiou I-jen (邱義仁), accusing him of violating the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Law by upgrading the nation's security status, as is customary before an election.
In addition, PFP and KMT lawmakers requested the Control Yuan form a task force to probe into whether Premier Yu Shyi-kun, who doubled as the DPP's campaign manager, had broken the law by presiding over the national security meeting, which is the responsibility of the president.
They also asked the government watchdog to investigate Chiu and National Security Council Secretary-General Kang Ning-hsiang (
Meanwhile, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus yesterday criticized remarks made by a PFP lawmaker, requesting that PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) apologize for the lawmaker's comments about Chen.
Likening Chen to a despotic emperor, Emperor Chou (
DPP legislative caucus whip Tsai Huang-lang (
Branding Lee an "uncivilized instigator" and his remark "nearly insane," Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) requested Wang uphold justice and revoke Lee's legal immunity as a lawmaker and send him to the legislature's discipline committee for punishment.
"We condemn such inappropriate and shameless remarks about the president and we're sorry to hear such remarks uttered by a highly-educated intellectual and college professor," Lin said. "It'd be the appeasement of the worst sort if we kept quiet about such demented, defamatory and negative comments."
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
QUICK LOOK: The amendments include stricter recall requirements and Constitutional Court procedures, as well as a big increase in local governments’ budgets Portions of controversial amendments to tighten requirements for recalling officials and Constitutional Court procedures were passed by opposition lawmakers yesterday following clashes between lawmakers in the morning, as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members tried to block Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators from entering the chamber. Parts of the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) and Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法) passed the third reading yesterday. The legislature was still voting on various amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) as of press time last night, after the session was extended to midnight. Amendments to Article 4
RSS