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Legislature
unanimously vetoes controversial bill
STORM BREWING: The KMT dominated the vote on the
agenda for the extra session, with notable items including the Fourth Nuclear
Power Plant referendum
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng
votes in the legislature in Taipei yesterday on a veto of a controversial
amendment to the Accounting Act.
Photo: CNA
The legislature yesterday unanimously
supported the Executive Yuan’s veto of a controversial amendment to the
Accounting Act (會計法) on the first day of a two-week extra session, temporarily
snuffing a political firestorm.
A vote of 110 to zero means that the amendment, which would have exempted city
and county councilors from charges of misusing public funds and released
hundreds of academics from probes into their use of receipts to claim government
funds, will be nullified.
Three of the 113 lawmakers did not vote yesterday afternoon, including Deputy
Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), who is visiting China, independent
Legislator May Chin (高金素梅) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yen
Kuan-heng (顏寬恆), who decided not to vote because the amendment could have
exonerated his father, Yen Ching-piao (顏清標), an imprisoned former lawmaker.
The vote, at least for now, puts to rest one of the biggest legislative
controversies of recent years after the public condemned the nation’s political
parties for their “late-night secret deal” on the final day of the previous
legislative session, when opposition parties, which favored the
decriminalization of academics, collaborated with the KMT, which had an eye on
getting Yen out of prison, in closed-door cross-party negotiations.
With its majority, the KMT dominated a morning vote on the agenda for the extra
session.
Notable items among the 49 proposals included an amendment to the Income Tax Act
(所得稅法), related to the controversial capital gains tax on securities
transactions, and legislation related to the 12-year compulsory education
system, pension reform and a national referendum on the construction of the
Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市).
The KMT also agreed to place proposals by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) on legislation against monopolization in
the media on the agenda.
However, the DPP’s “three anti-nuclear bills,” which are proposed amendments
regarding the promotion of a nuclear-free homeland (非核家園推動法), and to the Nuclear
Reactor Facilities Control Act (核子反應器設施管制法) and the Referendum Act (公投法), failed
to make the list, despite them being supported by the TSU and the People First
Party.
Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) is scheduled to report to the legislature today on
the 12-year compulsory education system, another disputed policy that could spur
heated debate.
The controversial proposal for a referendum on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is
scheduled for the latter part of the extra session, which concludes on June 27,
KMT caucus whip Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池) said.
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