The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has been trying to obtain the People First Party’s (PFP) support to jointly file a request in the legislature for a constitutional interpretation on the Act Governing the Handling of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations (政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理條例) passed on Monday, KMT Vice Chairman Steve Chan (詹啟賢) said yesterday.
As it requires at least one-third, or 38, of all 113 legislators to file a request for a constitutional interpretation and the KMT caucus has only 35 seats, the KMT would need to form an alliance with lawmakers from other parties to reach the threshold.
In a radio interview, Chan said the KMT has been in communication with the PFP via various channels, with some saying that there is “room for consideration,” but adding that it is “not yet the last moment.”
When asked whether the KMT was directly in touch with PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), Chan said that he could not offer a clear answer, as he did not have the details of how contact was established.
Chan said the KMT has also “indirectly” approached Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers.
Chan denied media speculation that he has a different stance from KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) on how the party’s assets should be handled.
“It is just that Hung, as chairwoman, has more to take into consideration,” he said, adding that he also considers the act to be unconstitutional and contravening existing laws, calling it bad for democracy.
Chan said the party would be restructured, receiving more help from volunteers and donating the rest of its assets after calculating and reserving a portion to cover the interests of retired party workers.
With the passage of the act and the establishment of an Executive Yuan committee to handle ill-gotten party assets, Chan said the KMT would recommend representatives to the committee if asked to do so by the government.
Chan said that he does not know and has never asked how many assets the KMT possesses.
“The point is whether they are hidden away,” he added.
To his knowledge, the KMT Administration and Management Committee has a “crystal-clear” record of the party’s assets, he said, adding that the Cabinet and the Control Yuan had conducted related investigations during the terms of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and that members of the public can also tip the government off about what they suspect to be “hidden” KMT assets.
In regards to the party’s readiness to donate assets, Chan said the KMT’s stance is that it would “rather go bankrupt than continue to be accused of possessing ill-gotten assets.”
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS