ELECTION 2024/TPP to announce Wednesday who it will back for legislative speaker

Taipei, Jan. 30 (CNA) The Taiwan People's Party (TPP) will announce which candidate it has decided to support in the incoming Legislature's Feb. 1 speaker election on Wednesday, the party said Tuesday.

Update: TPP nominates former Taipei deputy mayor as speaker candidate

TPP Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and the party's eight legislators-elect met early Tuesday to discuss the issue, and reached a tentative decision, TPP party spokesperson Christina Yang (楊寶楨) told reporters.

The party's speaker endorsement, as well as its legislative leadership team, will be unveiled at a press conference on Wednesday, Yang said.

Yang's remarks came after the TPP held separate meetings on Monday with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Kuomintang (KMT) legislative speaker candidates. Taiwan elected a new 113-seat Legislature on Jan. 13, whose members will be sworn in on Feb. 1.

Because neither the 52 seats won by the KMT nor the 51 seats won by the DPP are enough for a majority in the 113-seat chamber, both parties will need the backing of the smaller TPP's eight seats to get their speaker candidate elected or get support for their priorities.

Seeking to leverage those seats, TPP lawmakers have made four proposals that they said were aimed at legislative transparency and oversight and asked the two major parties' legislative speaker candidates to endorse them.

The proposals called for revising rules on penalties for officials who give false testimony at hearings, prohibiting agencies from blocking lawmaker access to documents, preventing lawmakers from acting on bills that constitute a conflict of interest and requiring the legislative speaker to detail their use of a special stipend.

In the speaker election, the DPP has nominated incumbent Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫堃) and his deputy Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) for another term leading the chamber, while the KMT has put forward Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), its 2020 presidential candidate, and former KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣).

Separately on Tuesday, the KMT formally approved its legislative leadership team, which will include Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) as caucus convener, Hung Mong-kai (洪孟楷) as caucus secretary-general, and Lin Szu-ming (林思銘) as deputy secretary-general.