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
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Actor Lee Wei (李威) was released on bail on Monday after being named as a suspect in the death of a woman whose body was found in the meeting place of a Buddhist group in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) last year, prosecutors said. Lee, 44, was released on NT$300,000 (US$9,148) bail, while his wife, surnamed Chien (簡), was released on NT$150,000 bail after both were summoned to give statements regarding the woman’s death. The home of Lee, who has retreated from the entertainment business in the past few years, was also searched by prosecutors and police earlier on Monday. Lee was questioned three
RSS