Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) may have violated the Referendum Act (公民投票法) through their collaboration in launching a national referendum proposal on the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Gongliao District (貢寮), a group of academics and lawmakers said yesterday.
Article 13 of the Referendum Act prohibits the nation’s administrative bodies from carrying out referendums or commissioning other organizations to carry out referendums, lawyer Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎) told a press conference organized by the Taiwan Association of University Professors.
However, after Jiang on Feb. 25 mentioned in the legislature that the Executive Yuan intended to resolve the dispute over the plant’s construction through a referendum, the KMT caucus followed up by proposing a referendum, which was initiated by KMT Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) and endorsed by more than 30 KMT lawmakers.
“Several civic groups plan to file a lawsuit against Jiang with the Supreme Prosecutors Office’s Special Investigation Division if the referendum proposal is passed in a plenary session of the Legislative Yuan tomorrow,” Huang said.
The KMT filed a similar lawsuit in 2008 against then-premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration, accusing Chang of collaborating with then-DPP chairman Yu Shyi-kun (游錫堃) to hold a referendum on the nation’s bid for UN membership.
The KMT’s move appeared to be a coordinated effort and suggests that the administrative branch would do whatever it takes to complete the construction of the power plant, opposition and anti-nuclear groups said.
They also said that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration is determined to carry on with the construction and that the phrasing of the referendum question was twisted — although the government supports the construction of the power plant, the referendum would ask the public whether or not the construction should be halted.
“The passage of the referendum would put the legislature to shame as KMT legislators would have become puppets of their political party,” said DPP Legislator Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who was among a group of DPP lawmakers demanding the Control Yuan investigate whether Jiang’s suggestion had violated the law.
As the dispute over the referendum has snowballed and there is no clear resolution in sight, Cheng said the fate of the plant’s construction should be first voted on in the legislature and then put to a national referendum.
Aletheia University assistant law professor Wu Chin-ching (吳景欽) said that a lawsuit would not bring substantial results under the current judicial system, which could simply dismiss the case, and said that filing a civil lawsuit could be a better option.
‘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