The legislature today passed the third reading on amendments to the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) after physical clashes erupted in the legislative chamber this morning between ruling and opposition party legislators.
The amendments to the act require signatories of recall petitions to submit a copy of their ID card, while anyone who fraudulently uses another person’s identity to take part in a recall petition shall be sentenced to imprisonment for up to five years and/or a fine of up to NT$1,000,000 (US$30,576).
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) does not even care to put on a show, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said, adding that the KMT lawmakers had taken away the public’s power to recall officials because they are afraid to be recalled.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Wu said the DPP was silenced during the deliberation process and did not have the chance to properly discuss the proposed amendments.
The plenary meeting today handled five articles of the act, Wu said, and 40 DPP lawmakers registered to speak about the articles.
The KMT caucus proposed that the discussion be halted after Wu made a speech, only allowing one DPP lawmaker to speak.
“No discussion, no democracy!” DDP lawmakers chanted as some of them threw water bottles at the speaker’s podium which were blocked by KMT lawmakers with acrylic boards.
Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), who was escorted into the chamber by KMT legislators after physical clashes erupted earlier this morning, conducted a vote by show of hands in accordance with Article 35 of the Legislative Yuan’s procedures (立法院議事規則).
Despite the DPP opposing the vote by various means, the third reading on the amendments of the act was passed as the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party together hold the majority in the legislature.
The Ministry of the Interior expressed deep regret today that the legislature passed the third reading on amendments to the act that would raise the threshold for recall petitions without obtaining full public consensus.
Requiring petitioners to submit their ID card copies could risk leaking personal information, causing potential harm to people’s privacy and properties, the ministry said in a press release.
The amendments could discourage people from taking part in recall petitions and restrict voters’ right to recall officials, it said.
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
‘LAGGING BEHIND’: The NATO secretary-general called on democratic allies to be ‘clear-eyed’ about Beijing’s military buildup, urging them to boost military spending NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte mentioning China’s bullying of Taiwan and its ambition to reshape the global order has significance during a time when authoritarian states are continuously increasing their aggression, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. In a speech at the Carnegie Europe think tank in Brussels on Thursday, Rutte said Beijing is bullying Taiwan and would start to “nibble” at Taiwan if Russia benefits from a post-invasion peace deal with Ukraine. He called on democratic allies to boost defense investments and also urged NATO members to increase defense spending in the face of growing military threats from Russia
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
RSS