A Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) proposal to amend the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) is to be discussed at a public hearing on Wednesday and deliberated at the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee on Thursday, the Legislative Yuan’s Conference Department said.
The proposal states that elected officials should not be impeached or recalled within a year of being elected into office.
The KMT caucus said the proposed amendments do not seek to alter the legal threshold for recall petitions.
Photo: Lin Liang-sheng, Taipei Time
The proposed amendment is intended to make the act more fair and reasonable, the caucus said, adding that it aims to prevent the use of recalls as a form of revenge.
The public hearing next week seeks to make the debate on the issue transparent and include the public in the process, it added.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said the KMT’s move was just a ploy to prevent its lawmakers from being recalled.
Ker added that even if the amendment were to pass, it would only affect the incoming legislators, citing that when Constitutional Interpretation No. 499 went into effect, it only affected future legislators.
DPP caucus secretary-general Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said the KMT’s amendment would only make it more difficult for the public to exercise their rights to issue a recall against a public official.
The KMT was just afraid of recalls, she said.
Wu said her caucus would not support the amendment.
KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday said the discussion of an amendment to the act is not related to civic groups petitioning for Keelung Mayor George Hsieh (謝國樑) to be recalled.
The amendment is about correcting what is unreasonable, he said.
One does not need to present proof of identity when participating in a recall petition, but a printed copy of one’s national ID Card should be necessary, he said.
Chu added that the issue of whether the votes supporting the recall should exceed the number of votes that the recall target had garnered in the last election should be discussed.
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on Friday said his party opposed changing the legal threshold for a recall to succeed and also opposed using recalls as a political tool.
However, the process of recalling politicians should be reviewed and one should not be able to copy someone’s household registration data and pass it off as having convinced them to sign the petition, he said.
Additional reporting by Chou Min-hung and Liu Wan-lin
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS