Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators proposed a re-election to select a new speaker as the first item on the agenda in a meeting today at the Legislative Yuan, saying that Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu's (韓國瑜) delaying the submission of two bills to President William Lai (賴清德) to promulgate is illegal and unconstitutional.
The DPP is seeking to invoke Article 8 of the Regulations on Electing the Legislative Speaker and Deputy Speaker by Legislators (立法委員互選院長副院長辦法), which states that if more than one-third of legislators propose a re-election and more than two-thirds of legislators agree, a re-election may be initiated.
On Dec. 20, Legislative Yuan passed the third reading of amendments to three acts: the Public Officers Election and Recall Act (公職人員選罷法), the Act Governing Allocations of Government Revenue and Expenditure (財政收支劃分法) and the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法).
Photo: Taipei Times
Although the three bills were passed on the same day, the latter was sent to Lai to promulgate on Dec. 24, while Han delayed the submission of the other two bills at the written request of two Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) committee convenors of the Internal Administration Committee, Hsu Hsin-ying (徐欣瑩), and the Finance Committee’s Chen Yu-jen (陳玉珍), dated Dec. 27, the DPP said.
Han’s actions as speaker are illegal and unconstitutional, and whether the proposal succeeds or not, it reflects the DPP’s standpoint and fundamental principles — if they do not call for his dismissal now, the DPP may as well shut up shop, DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said.
DPP legislators Tsai Yi-yu (蔡易餘) and Wang Yi-chuan (王義川) arrived at the Legislative Yuan in the middle of the night to submit the proposal for today’s meeting.
Allowing individual committee convenors to override the Constitution and legislative procedure to dictate whether a bill should be transmitted contravenes the constitution and disrupts government operations, they said.
These actions contravene Article 72 of the Constitution, which states that “statutory bills passed by the Legislative Yuan shall be transmitted to the president of the republic and to the Executive Yuan,” the DPP added.
Han has openly aligned with the KMT by delaying the submission of the two acts until the Constitutional Court act was transmitted to the president, an act of political manipulation that contravenes Article 3 of the Organic Act of the Legislative Yuan (立法院組織法), which states that a speaker shall maintain order in the legislature based on the principle of neutrality and fairness, the DPP said.
The KMT also twice occupied the speaker’s podium, conducted votes by show of hands and engaged in physical altercations to push through the third reading of the Constitutional Court reform bill, using their control of proceedings to “sell out to China,” Ker said.
Whether the KMT was purposefully stirring up trouble or facing an unknown predicament, today’s proposal is to be recorded in the Legislative Yuan Gazette and officials including Hsu, Chen and Legislative Yuan Secretary-General Chester Chou (周萬來) are to be referred to the Control Yuan for impeachment, and legal action is to be taken, Ker said.
The KMT today said the DPP’s action is tantamount to spilling the “coffee of reconciliation” on Lai, who invited Han for a coffee before he leads the official Taiwan delegation to US president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration later this month.
The DPP has no intention of reconciling but to initiate power struggles, it said, adding that Lai is not able to control the DPP caucus.
The KMT also accused the DPP of using the democratic system as a tool to attack the opposition, asking “is this what Lai means by greater democracy?”
Additional reporting by Chen Cheng-yu, Lee Wen-hsin, Shih Hsiao-kuang and Fion Khan
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