Three packages of amendments approved by the legislature would be “difficult to implement,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday, adding that the Cabinet would seek “remedies” under the Constitution.
With the support of the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), the amendments passed on Friday after hours of brawls between lawmakers from the opposition and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
The amendments included changes to the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) that stipulate those proposing a recall and those signing petitions provide a copy of the front and back of their national IDs.
Photo: Taipei Times
Amendments to the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法) require 10 judges to attend court sessions and nine judges to agree before legislation can be declared unconstitutional.
Amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) increase funding allocations to local governments.
Cho said in a statement that the Cabinet “regrets” the passage of new measures to tighten recall petition requirements, curb the Constitutional Court’s ability to rule on cases and affect the central government’s budget.
The provisions did not go through comprehensive deliberation in the legislature, he said.
The premier did not specify what the executive branch planned to do next, and a Cabinet official who declined to be named said the matter was still being discussed.
The Cabinet can seek to reject a law passed by the legislature by requesting the lawmaking body reconsider it, or bring it to the Constitutional Court once the law takes effect.
Earlier this year, Cho’s Cabinet took similar measures after KMT and TPP lawmakers passed a package of revisions granting the legislature broader investigative powers, most of which were halted by the Constitutional Court.
DPP lawmakers, who entered the legislative chamber the previous night to block Friday’s meeting, said that the new measures had not been discussed thoroughly and inter-party negotiations had failed to resolve the differences.
President William Lai (賴清德) said that the measures would “deprive” people of their right to petition for a recall of elected officials, impose “unreasonable thresholds” for Constitutional Court rulings and risk “endangering national security” by potentially forcing the government to cut back on defense spending.
Lai also made an enigmatic comment yesterday, saying that “democratic disputes should be resolved with even greater democracy.”
KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), in a social media post yesterday criticized DPP lawmakers’ efforts to stall Friday’s session, calling them an “attempt to paralyze the legislature.”
The KMT said the new measures would prevent recall petitions from being “abused,” avoid “biased” rulings by the Constitutional Court and help alleviate local governments’ “fiscal deficits.”
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