• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

EXECUTIVE YUAN ASKS LEGISLATIVE YUAN TO RECONSIDER REFERENDUM BILL

2003-12-11 20:16:21

    Taipei, Dec. 11 (CNA) The Executive Yuan formally asked the Legislative Yuan Thursday to reconsider part of the referendum bill railroaded through the Legislative Yuan by the opposition parties Nov. 27.

    Executive Yuan spokesman Lin Chia-lung said that 12 of the 64 articles in the bill were considered unacceptable by the Cabinet and needed to be returned to the Legislative Yuan for reconsideration.

    Although the bill is a step forward in terms of the development of democracy, Lin said, part of it is "unconstitutional" because it gives the Legislative Yuan the power to initiate referenda on major policy formulated by the Executive Yuan while denying the Executive Yuan a similar right.

    Furthermore, the spokesman said, the setting up of a referendum review committee called for in the bill is unnecessary, as its function would be the same as that of the existing Central Election Commission.

    Under the Constitution, the returned bill will be automatically annulled unless the Legislative Yuan rejects the request within 15 days with a majority vote of at least 113 in the 225-seat legislature.

    If that scenario takes place, the premier will have to either accept the Legislative Yuan's decision or step down.

    Since the two main opposition parties control a narrow legislative majority of 113 seats between them, every vote will count in case of a showdown.

    Meanwhile, the opposition parties claimed that the Executive Yuan's move gives the lie to the ruling Democratic Progressive Party's claim that it is the driving force for the right to referendum.

    Legislative Yuan President Wang Jin-pyng said the Executive Yuan's request is unprecedented in that it challenges only part of the bill and in some cases, even only a section of an article. "Usually, we are called upon to deal with a whole article rather than a section of it, " Wang said, adding that it is up to the lawmakers to determine how to respond to the request.

(By Maubo Chang)

ENDITEM/J