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DPP LAWMAKERS FILE ON REFERENDUM BILL'S CONSTITUTIONALITY

2004-01-05 20:34:55

    Taipei, Jan. 5 (CNA) The legislative caucus of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) asked the Council of Grand Justices (CGJ) Monday to decide whether certain provisions in the newly enacted Referendum Law are constitutional.

    Three DPP lawmakers -- Lai Ching-teh, Chen Chin-teh and Lee Ming-hsien -- filed the petition with the CGJ under the Judicial Yuan on behalf of the caucus.

    The provisions in question include a clause that concerns amendments to the Constitution and an article that authorizes the Legislative Yuan to initiate a referendum. Also included is a provision that requires the establishment of a committee based on the principle of proportional representation in the legislature to screen referendum subjects.

    The petition also questions the legality of the procedures through which Article 18 of the Referendum Law was passed. The DPP legislative caucus claimed that the opposition-controlled legislature made substantive revisions to the article during the third reading that offended the existing legislative power enforcement rules.

    The legislators said they hope the CGJ will interpret the constitutionality of the controversial clauses as soon as possible.

    Moreover, they went on, the DPP legislative caucus will also initiate a draft bill calling for revisions to what it says are certain "flaws and deficiencies" in the newly enacted Referendum Law, including what it says is an unreasonably high threshold for individual citizens to initiate a referendum and a ban on the Executive Yuan initiating a referendum.

    The country's first-ever referendum law was promulgated Dec. 3l and took effect Jan. 2.

    Referendum legislation was the DPP's brainchild, but the opposition "pan-blue alliance" of the Kuomintang and the People First Party, which control a majority in the Legislative Yuan, outmaneuvered the ruling party by packing the Cabinet-drafted bill with their own ideas and steamrolling it through the legislature Nov. 27.

    The disappointed Cabinet then asked the legislature to reconsider 12 of the 64 articles of the bill Dec. 11, but the request was rejected Dec. 19.

(By Sofia Wu)

ENDITEM/J