Legislature votes down Cabinet's reconsideration request

Taipei, June 21 (CNA) The Legislative Yuan has rejected the Cabinet's request to reconsider amendments recently passed to strengthen the Legislature's investigative powers, setting the stage for a potential constitutional challenge to the measures.

The vote on Friday came after the Committee of the Whole Legislative Yuan convened on Wednesday and Thursday to examine the request made by the Cabinet, with the approval of President Lai Ching-te (賴清德), last week for the Legislature to reconsider the amendments.

With 62 votes in the 113-seat Legislature, lawmakers rejected Cabinet requests to reconsider amendments to the Law Governing the Legislative Yuan's Power and amendments to the Criminal Code.

The 62 votes included the Kuomintang's (KMT) 52 lawmakers, two independents ideologically aligned with the party, and eight lawmakers with the Taiwan People's Party (TPP).

The Cabinet effectively vetoed the amendments after arguing they were "difficult to implement" because they violated various Constitutional Interpretations concerning the Legislature's scope of power.

Under Taiwan's legal system, a request for reconsideration can be overturned by a simple legislative majority.

Executive Yuan (Cabinet) spokesperson Chen Shi-kai (陳世凱) said it will seek a ruling from the Constitutional Court on the constitutionality of the amendments after the passed bills are announced by the president.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said the DPP caucus will do the same, though it was not immediately unclear why both the Cabinet and the DPP caucus would both file motions.

Ker also said that because a constitutional ruling could take some time, the caucus will also file a motion for "a preliminary injunction ruling" by the Constitutional Court to keep the amended laws from being implemented before a final ruling is made.

The KMT and TPP have argued that the measures are necessary for the Legislature to effectively engage in government oversight because existing legislative powers lacked teeth and allowed the government to avoid providing critical information requested by lawmakers.