All political parties should take up dialogue and not confrontation, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said yesterday.
Saying that no party has a majority in the new legislature following Saturday’s legislative elections, Ker urged lawmakers to use wisdom to revolve disputes, as otherwise there would likely be more political wrangling.
In Saturday’s legislative elections, the DPP secured 51 seats in the 113-seat legislature, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) 52, and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) eight. Another two seats were won by independents aligned with the KMT.
Photo: Taipei Times file
“The incoming DPP government has to face a new legislature dominated by opposition parties. However, this is not new, since our party has experienced this situation in the past. Although there will be disagreements, just as before, we will work on negotiating and resolving disputes one by one, and for parties to take up dialogue instead of confrontation in the coming legislative term,” Ker said.
Ker confirmed that Legislative Speaker You Si-kun of the DPP would seek to retain the position. You and Ker were placed in seventh and ninth spots respectively on the legislators-at-large list, of which the DPP won 13 seats based on the political party ballots.
“There are many new challenges in the legislature, and so we must impose party discipline to ensure unity for the DPP legislative caucus,” Ker said. “But we will have internal discussions to seek cooperation and forge alliances with other party members.”
The DPP and KMT have expressed willingness to work with the TPP to combine forces to push past a majority, reportedly offering the position of deputy speaker in exchange, which could be taken up by either former Taipei deputy mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) or former New Power Party legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), both taking seats as the TPP’s legislator-at-large nominees.
The KMT has planned for former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), who holds the first spot in the KMT’s legislator-at-large list, to contest the speakership position, and is likely to nominate Legislator-at-large Ko Chih-en (柯志恩) to take up the party’s seat for deputy speaker.
Voting by legislators is to take place on Feb. 1 at the start of the new legislative term, and a secret ballot will be held to select the speaker and deputy speaker positions.
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