Cross-party negotiations yesterday broke down at the Legislative Yuan as the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) declared that the review process was complete for amending the rules on recall votes, while Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators said the process was invalid as the review did not follow proper procedures.
KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) said that his party would tomorrow hold a vote to pass a third reading of the amendments to the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法) and the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法).
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said the upcoming weeks are “the most crucial for Taiwan” as the KMT attempts to force through the amendments, along with other bills that would undermine the Constitution.
Photo: Liao Cheng-hui, Taipei Times.
At the start of yesterday morning’s meeting of the Internal Administration Committee, DPP legislators occupied the podium, taking turns decrying the bill’s passage and the KMT’s blocking of DPP legislators from entering Monday’s session.
At the Monday meeting, committee convener Hsu Hsin-ying (徐欣瑩) of the KMT announced the unanimous passage of the preliminary review of the draft amendments before quickly ending the meeting.
DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said lawmakers did not follow proper legislative procedures in reviewing the bill, and because DPP legislators were blocked, their passage should be invalidated.
Wu and DPP lawmakers occupied the podium through the early afternoon in a protest against restarting the committee session.
They left the room at about 4pm for a planned meeting and to take their complaints about procedural problems to Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜). At that time, Hsu and other KMT legislators instructed legislative staff to start the meeting and complete the proceedings of the legislature.
Hsu declared that the review process for the bill and other legislative procedures had been completed.
“The committee session on Monday fully conformed with the required process,” she said, adding that the legislators had met the quorum requirements and that the passage of the bill through the review process was binding.
DPP legislators disagreed, urging legislative staff to not finalize the proceedings, and to not allow the amendments to proceed.
Separately, DPP Secretary-General Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) yesterday called on the public and those who participated in the “Bluebird movement” protests — a series of demonstrations earlier this year against legislative reforms — to rally outside the legislature from yesterday until tomorrow.
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