《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Pan-blues fail to call interim Taipei council session

An attempt to call an interim session of the Taipei City Council yesterday on the part of Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） councilors fell through over the lack of a quorum.

Just 28 members from the pan-blue New Party and KMT caucuses arrived for the special session called by KMT Taipei Council Speaker Wu Pi-chu （吳碧珠）, well short of the majority quorum of 32 members required to officially open a council session.

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The Democratic Progressive Party （DPP） caucus boycotted the session, which was intended to force independent Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je （柯文哲） to give an account of his decision to remove a special bus lane on Zhongxiao W Road and to debate high-school admission plans for this year.

“Mayor Ko has been in office for only several days,” DPP caucus convener Rosalia Wu （吳思瑤） said. “He still needs time to familiarize himself with the city’s departments and to formulate policies.”

She added that there was no urgency on the issues cited by the KMT that would justify the more than NT$1 million expense that a special session would entail.

When it became apparent that a quorum would not be reached, Wu Pi-chu opened the floor for a discussion to provide KMT caucus members with an opportunity to air their views.

“Calling a special session isn’t to criticize Ko or to earn attendance fees,” KMT Taipei Councilor Wu Shih-cheng （吳世正） said. “Even if there were attendance fees, we have an obligation as representatives to supervise the city government.”

Despite the council’s failure to achieve a quorum, KMT Taipei Councilor Chin Hui-chu （秦慧珠）, who lead the petition to a call a special session, said her caucus had still achieved a “great victory,” after Ko sent Taipei Deputy Mayor Teng Chia-chi （鄧家基） and his public works and education commissioners to answer the questions of the KMT caucus.

Most of the independent councilors, who hold the balance of power on the council, declined to attend the session.

Independent Taipei Councilor Chen Cheng-chung （陳政忠） said that the council should “encourage” the mayor to experiment and pursue his agenda, adding that calling a session to criticize his performance after only a week was overly “harsh.”

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES