The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) plans to propose that the Legislative Yuan invite President William Lai (賴清德) to deliver a “state of the nation” address, TPP caucus whip Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said yesterday.
Huang made the remarks at a news conference briefing the public about three decisions the caucus had reached.
As the Act Governing the Legislative Yuan’s Power (立法院職權行使法) has been promulgated, the president is obliged to present a state of the nation address at the legislature and answer legislators’ questions, in whatever form that might take, Huang said.
Photo: CNA
The TPP would ask for the item to be put on the legislative agenda for Friday next week, he said.
The amended act gives lawmakers the authority to launch investigations and hold hearings, so the TPP caucus is to apply the new powers to scrutinize the National Development Fund’s investment choices and the Mirror TV case, Huang said.
More than half of the items that the National Development Fund has invested in have delivered severe losses, he said, adding that fund managers have allegedly invested taxpayers’ money in China and other places.
The TPP hopes to launch an investigation into the Mirror TV case, in which top government officials — including the president and the premier — allegedly abused their power and illegally influenced the National Communications Commission to allow Mirror TV to be established, he said.
People deserve to hear the truth about the case, Huang said, adding that the legislature’s powers of inquiry empower it to investigate such issues.
The caucus does not agree with the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) proposal to amend the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), but would introduce a TPP version to ensure that recall processes are used legitimately, he said.
TPP Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on Friday last week said that while his party opposed changing recall threshold rules, the process should be reviewed, as it should not be used as a political tool.
The TPP version would require that the signature collection rules follow the President and Vice President Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法) system, which requires signatories to provide their national ID card, Huang said.
The civil servants recall act allows people to copy household registration data and pass them off as legitimate signatures, the TPP caucus said.
Last week, KMT Legislator Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄) introduced a motion to amend the civil servants recall act to prevent elected officials from being targeted by a recall vote within a year of taking office.
The proposed amendments also say that votes supporting a recall should exceed the number of votes that the target garnered.
The KMT has said its proposals do not seek to alter the threshold for recall petitions, but intend to make the legislation fairer and more reasonable.
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