If the current Legislative Yuan is dissolved, new legislative elections will have to be conducted under the new electoral system, the Central Election Commission said on Friday.
The commission made the announcement amid reports that the opposition was considering a recall of the president or the toppling of the Cabinet in the wake of a spate of corruption scandals implicating the close aides and family members of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
Election commission officials said if opposition legislators initiated a motion of no-confidence and won enough support in the legislature, and the president refused to budge and instead dissolved the legislature, then they would have to conduct the new legislative election within 60 days.
The new legislative election would be carried out according to the amended Constitution, including the new electoral system of "single constituency, two votes" under a re-districting scheme and the halving of the number of legislative seats to 113, adopted last June.
According to the recently amended law governing the election and recall of public functionaries, the legislature is required to give its consent to the re-districting scheme at least 13 months before the current legislature expires.
Commission spokesman Deng Tien-you (鄧天祐) said the draft re-districting scheme, which was mapped out by the commission after a lengthy consultation period with local election commissions and the views of academics and experts, has already been sent to the legislature.
If the legislature has not yet given its consent and a new legislative election is approaching, then the new constituency would follow the re-districting scheme mapped out by the commission, because the status of the Constitution is higher than the law, he said.
The newly elected legislators would be sworn in for four-year terms instead of the current three years, according to the amended Constitution.
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
RSS