The Legislative Yuan’s ability to hold sessions remotely — if the COVID-19 outbreak worsens — was tested yesterday as Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫堃) and Secretary-General Lin Chih-chia (林志嘉) held a teleconference.
While there was some delay in transmission, the video quality was clear, Lin said.
Lin watched as the conference was arranged in a meeting room and then returned to his office to be patched in after You accepted the call in his office.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
During the call, You told Lin that planning was necessary to ensure that legislative affairs — the review of bills and budgets — can continue during the outbreak.
No one wishes for the situation to get worse, but one must be prepared, he said, adding that it was possible that Taiwan’s legislature is the first to take such measures.
Lin said that the legislature would also conduct drills on how to vote on motions via teleconference.
The system would be tested for various situations, beginning with a legislative affairs meeting, followed by a Procedure Committee meeting, a standing committee meeting and ultimately, a full floor session, he said.
“We hope not to have to use the system, but we must make what preparations we can,” Lin said.
The system would only be used if the legislative speaker decided — after convening an emergency session of the legislature after two legislators have been tested positive for COVID-19 — to suspend legislative meetings entirely or to conduct some meetings via teleconference, Lin said.
The next two weeks would be critical for the nation’s disease prevention efforts, Lin said, citing Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), and he urged public solidarity.
Taiwan’s ban on foreigners entering the country, effective today, borders on a lockdown of the nation, he said.
Lin also thanked Microsoft for providing the teleconferencing system and hardware, and for helping testing the system yesterday.
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