A recent internal debate within the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) over which of the various legislative committees they would like to sit on could force a number of legislators to use their professional expertise elsewhere.
An internal party poll of KMT legislators held to determine which of the legislature’s eight standing committees they would like to join had 18 KMT lawmakers signing up for the Economics Committee, 11 for the Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee, 10 for the Transportation Committee and nine for the Finance Committee.
Regulations limit the number of seats per committee to a minimum of 13 and a maximum of 15, with the Economics, Transportation and Finance committees usually allocated the most seats.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who doubles as KMT chairman, urged the party on Thursday last week to let professionals contribute more to the legislative process in spite of party rules.
KMT caucus rules stipulate that newly elected legislators-at-large cannot sign up for the Economics, Finance, Transportation or other “favored” committees. Under the party’s “points accumulation” system, new constituency legislators are also usually left with committees that the “senior” legislators don’t want.
Thus, the chances of Legislator-at-large Tseng Chu-wei (曾巨威), a professor of finance at National Chengchi University, landing a spot on the Finance Committee appears low, as he faces strong competition from other senior KMT lawmakers.
Likewise, the KMT has five legislators-at-large who would seem to be ideal candidates for the Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee — child protection specialist Alicia Wang (王育敏), disadvantaged patient representative Yang Yu-hsin (楊玉欣), workers’ rights activist Wu Yu-jen (吳育仁), medical field representative Su Ching-chuan (蘇清泉) and environmental protection specialist Chiu Wen-yen (邱文彥) — but only a few are likely to make it to the committee.
The People First Party (PFP) and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), with three legislative seats each, along with other minority parties without legislative caucuses, are expected to draw lots for committee placements next Wednesday.
The remaining seats would then go through two rounds of lot drawing between the KMT and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP): The first will be based on the parties’ legislative seat ratios, giving the KMT 55 seats and the DPP 33 seats; the nine and eight seats left to the KMT and the DPP respectively would be resolved in the second round of lot drawing.
If the minority parties land seats in the more popular committees, the KMT’s options, which are already limited after it lost 10 legislative seats in the Jan. 14 elections, would drop further.
Translated by Jake Chung, Staff writer
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
RSS