The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said it respects the president’s authority while the opposition parties questioned his choices after the Presidential Office announced seven new judicial nominees for the Constitutional Court today.
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang accused the DPP of returning to the era when “justices and prosecutors were one family” by nominating a prosecutor to be the Judicial Yuan president.
“Not that they are bad, but I was thinking about Liu Ching-yi (劉靜怡),” he said, referring to the only nominee the TPP approved during a vote held in the legislature last year when all seven judicial nominees were rejected.
Photo: Chen Cheng-yu, Taipei Times
He questioned whether the nominees would owe “loyalty” to the DPP, unlike Liu, and whether they would be rejected if they criticize the DPP.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would responsibly review the nominees from different perspectives to exercise its constitutional obligations, it said in a statement released today.
As a gatekeeper, the KMT would select impartial and appropriate nominees to be the grand justices to allow the Constitutional Court to resume its normal operations, it said.
The KMT added that the judicial nominees should state clearly whether they support the death penalty and favor imposing heavier penalties on those who are convicted of abusing children.
It would be unfair to criticize the nominees when the relevant documents have not even been sent to the legislature, DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said while commenting on the opposition lawmakers’ response which she described as opposing for the sake of opposition.
The DPP respects the president’s authority, she said, adding that it is the legislature’s duty to scrutinize the nominees.
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said while he agreed that it is inappropriate to nominate a prosecutor to be the Judicial Yuan president, he believed Lai had been prudent in nominating these candidates.
It is meaningless to nominate grand justices at the moment because the opposition parties have amended the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法), requiring at least 10 justices on the court and at least nine justices to back any unconstitutional ruling, Ker said.
This is totally unconstitutional and the DPP has requested an injunction and constitutional interpretation of the amendments, he said.
In related news, the Central Election Commission today said it is to hold a hearing to clarify relevant arguments after convening a meeting to discuss a proposal about holding a referendum on amendments to Article 30 of the Constitutional Court Procedure Act.
The question of the proposed referendum is: “Do you agree to abolish amendments to Article 30 of the Constitutional Court Procedure Act which would require at least 10 justices on the court and at least nine justices to back any unconstitutional ruling passed on Dec. 20 last year?”
According to the petition, the proposal was put forward by a volunteer group which said it could not turn a blind eye to the Constitution Court being paralyzed and the principle of separation of powers being violated.
The group made the proposal based on the belief in a democratic constitutional order in a bid to safeguard the constitution and human rights in the nation, it said.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiao-kuang
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