The presidential and legislative elections on Jan. 14 will force mass resignations in President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) Cabinet twice before a new government is formed on May 20, a Central Personnel Administration (CPA) official said yesterday.
Holding the presidential election — usually held in March — in tandem with the legislative election creates an unprecedented four-month gap before inauguration on May 20, the longest period since the nation began direct presidential elections in 1996.
In the absence of legislation on government operations during the post-election period, Central Personnel Administration Secretary-General Chang Nien-chung (張念中) said constitutional practices and democratic norms would be the principles followed regardless of who wins the presidential election.
Regardless of whether Ma is re-elected or loses to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) or People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), the entire Cabinet will resign twice between Jan. 14 and May 20. The first time will be ahead of the eighth legislature, which convenes on Feb. 1, and the second will be before the president-elect is sworn in on May 20, Chang said.
In line with constitutional practice, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) should lead his Cabinet members to resign en masse before Feb. 1 “as a formality in a show of respect for the new legislature,” even though he is under no obligation under the Constitution to do so, Chang said.
As result of a 1997 amendment, which took away the legislature’s power to confirm the appointment of the premier by the president, the Constitution does not require the premier to resign after a new legislature is elected.
“However, it has been established through ‘precedent’ since 1999 for Cabinet members to resign en masse before the swearing in of a new legislature — until that was somewhat challenged in 2008,” Chang said.
In January 1999, then-premier Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) offered to resign before the then newly elected fourth legislature convened. Then-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) accepted his resignation and immediately reappointed Siew as premier.
Siew was the nation’s first premier to be appointed by the president without legislative confirmation.
The precedent set by Siew in 1999 was followed by premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) in January 2002, when the fifth legislature was elected and by premier Yu Shyi-kun (游錫堃) in January 2005 following the election of the sixth legislature, both during the DPP administration.
In January 2008 after the seventh legislature was elected, then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) rejected the resignation by then- premier Chang Chun-hsiung, and Chang then stayed put in a bid to establish another constitutional practice, citing several reasons, including that a legislative election does not require the mandatory resignation of the Cabinet following the 1997 amendment, and the maintenance of political stability.
Chen said the new practice he established was to avoid a situation in which a premier needs to resign twice in the space of three months and 19 days from Feb. 1 and May 20 as a result of the 2005 constitutional amendment that lengthened legislators’ terms of office from three years to four years, put into practice since the seventh legislature. That amendment put the legislative elections in step with that of the president, but maintained the difference in the dates of their inaugurations.
The CPA said it was the practice set by Siew that would be followed by Wu.
After Wu offers to resign before Feb. 1, Ma has the constitutional power to either ask the premier to stay on or to name a new premier even of Ma loses the election, Chang said, adding that “there is no limit to the president’s power of appointment during the caretaker period.”
It is believed there is little likelihood that Ma would appoint a new premier if he loses, as that would be hugely controversial, he said.
At any rate, the premier from Feb. 1 and his entire Cabinet members need to resign ahead of May 20, he said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS