Several Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators yesterday defied the party line on the issue of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant during the legislative vote to change the discussion agenda.
The plant is located in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮).
The ruling and opposition party caucuses yesterday locked horns over the addition of the nuclear issue to the agenda, after an attempt to do so was obstructed by the KMT at a meeting of the Procedure Committee on Tuesday.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan Solidarity Union had asked for the agenda to include proposals in which Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) would be required to deliver a special report to the legislature on the immediate termination of the construction and the slashing of the plant’s NT$8.1 billion (US$269 million) budget.
The KMT voted down the proposals, but not all of its members voted against.
KMT Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華), whose constituency is in New Taipei City, defied instructions issued by his party and voted yes for proposals motioned by the opposition parties relating to the construction.
Also voting against the party were KMT legislators Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾), Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) and Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才), who voted for additions to next week’s agenda on Tuesday of the termination of the construction and the budget reductions.
The KMT caucus had demanded the presence of all its legislators for the ballot, and KMT deputy caucus whip Wang Ting-son (王廷升) had said that party discipline would be enforced, with fines imposed to punish those who failed to show up or voted against the party consensus.
After the vote, Lo told reporters that the KMT lawmakers “have no chance to express their own opinions.”
“You have to persuade us instead of forcing us to support [the party resolution], which is futile,” she added.
Lee said he believed that the party caucus was “well-aware of his stance [on the issue].”
Saying that he had once proposed holding a referendum on the termination of the plant’s construction — which he later retracted — Lee said it would have been lying to the public yesterday if he had not voted in the same way.
Meanwhile, the KMT also voted through a draft act to raise the requirements for recalling legislators.
The move has sparked controversy at a time when a campaign to recall various KMT legislators is ongoing.
The draft act, which requires that the petitioners provide photocopies of identity cards and affidavits — in addition to the existing requirements for name, address and identification number — was passed by the KMT majority last year and bypassed the standing committee’s deliberation for a direct second reading.
The opposition said, at the time, that the bill was a special clause for KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇), who was the target of a public recall campaign.
The KMT yesterday placed the bill on Tuesday’s agenda, which means it could pass a second reading with a floor vote.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most