離開
進入《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Legislative session continues round clock til tomorrow
Legislative Yuan staff yesterday prepare budget proposals as a marathon budget session for state-owned businesses continued. Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
By Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter
The legislature yesterday continued to process more than 1,000 budget-cutting proposals motioned by the Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） caucus on Tuesday, and it is expected to do so around the clock until tomorrow at midnight.
Following the passage of the Act Governing the Handling of Ill-gotten Assets by Political Parties and their Affiliate Organizations （政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理條例） on Monday, the legislature had been scheduled to deal with budget bills for state-run enterprises during the rest of the extraordinary legislative session, which started on Wednesday last week and runs through tomorrow.
However, the KMT caucus on Tuesday snubbed cross-caucus negotiations over the budget bills, instead calling for going straight to the voting process. The KMT caucus then proposed more than 1,400 budget-slashing motions that are to be voted upon.
The Democratic Progressive Party caucus responded to the KMT caucus’ tactic, which was aimed at obstructing legislative proceedings, with the proposal to change the rest of the extraordinary session to a non-stop meeting, starting from Tuesday afternoon, that would last for a total of 82 hours until midnight tomorrow.
On Tuesday afternoon, the legislature launched the marathon voting spree, and the meeting has not adjourned since then.
The voting for each motion took five to 10 minutes as the KMT caucus called for a change of voting methods to roll call for each motion and a revote on that, and then another round of vote and revote to be conducted on whether the motion itself was approved.
KMT Legislator Arthur Chen （陳宜民） last night called Taipei Department of Labor Commissioner Lai Hsiang-lin （賴香伶）, saying that as a member of the Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee, he could not stand the Legislative Yuan’s employees being exploited and asking for a labor inspection to be conducted on the legislature.
The Taipei City Government yesterday called on the legislature to pay special attention to the labor rights of its employees and follow the Labor Standards Act （勞動基準法）, but said labor inspections would not be conducted without prior notice.
Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan （蘇嘉全） yesterday said that legislative tactics such as occupying the speaker’s podium and prolonged voting are carried out in many democracies.
“People understand [minority] parties need to put up a fight in the legislature, but parties should also evaluate to what extent the struggle is to be taken,” he said.
He said that the caucuses have not stopped communicating and that he has not given up on mediating among them.
“If more friendliness could be shown, the legislature might still finish reviewing the budget bills before Friday,” he said.
A Legislative Yuan staff member who reads the bills was said to have collapsed yesterday evening during a dinner break.
An ambulance was spotted in the Legislative Yuan compound.
Legislative Secretary-General Lin Chih-chia （林志嘉） said the clerk fainted in a restroom due to low blood pressure, but had regained consciousness and was in stable condition.
Lin added that the clerk had a normal daytime working schedule.
Additional reporting by CNA
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wu Ping-jui yesterday takes a nap at the legislative chamber during the marathon budget session for state-owned businesses. Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
