The New Power Party (NPP) yesterday objected to credentials of nominees to the National Communications Commission (NCC), preventing cross-caucus negotiations from reaching a consensus and delaying confirmation votes.
Negotiations were called by Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) to finalize a confirmation vote date for five new members of the commission before the end of the legislative session, with NPP Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) refusing to agree to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) proposals to schedule the vote for July 5 on the grounds that NCC Secretary-General Jason Ho (何吉森) was yet to submit updated evidence of academic work.
He had earlier been criticized by Huang for listing himself as the author of a paper that he had only co-authored.
“If there is any delay [in the confirmation vote], it will not be the fault of the Legislative Yuan,” Huang said, adding that the Executive Yuan had failed to provide the evidence over the past two weeks.
“The sooner they send in the evidence, the sooner we can hold negotiations on when to have the confirmation vote,” he said, adding that he had been unable to locate many of the publications Ho listed as his work.
“The question is not just a matter of keeping the material up to date; there is also the possibility of fraud, which would influence a candidate’s qualifications,” NPP caucus convener Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said, rejecting proposals to set the July 5 date with a proviso that a vote would be held only if the material was provided.
The NPP agreed to hold new negotiations over when to stage a vote as soon as the materials were submitted, with Kao Ming-chiu (高明秋), head of the Legislative Yuan’s conference department, saying that the Executive Yuan promised to submit the materials next week.
Reforming the commission has been a signature issue for Huang, who played a prominent role in the “anti-media monopoly” movement against Want Want China Broadband’s failed attempt to acquire cable television channels owned by China Network Systems.
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