According to the new amendments, a majority of the Legislative Yuan must propose to impeach the president or vice president. That proposal will then require the approval of a two-thirds majority the Legislative Yuan before the case is sent to the Council of Grand Justices for deliberation in the Constitutional Court. If the court agrees with the resolution, the official to be impeached will immediately be relieved of his or her post.
On June 7th Taiwan’s National Assembly approved a series of amendments to the Republic of China’s constitution that aim to streamline Taiwan’s government and raise the quality of democracy in Taiwan.
The amendments focus on enhancing parliamentary efficiency by halving the number of seats in the Legislative Yuan from 225 down to 113, and adopting a “single-constituency, two-ballot” system for legislative elections while extending legislative office terms from three to four years to synchronize with the presidential election beginning in 2008. The reforms will also abolish the ad hoc National Assembly itself. Accordingly, the right to further reform the constitution will be transferred from the National Assembly to the people of Taiwan through referenda, while the right to impeach the president and vice president will be transferred from the National Assembly to the Council of Grand Justices.
The new “single-constituency, two-ballot” system will allow voters to cast two ballots; one for a specific candidate in their district, the other for the political party of their choice to represent their district in the Legislative Yuan.
According to the new amendments, a majority of the Legislative Yuan must propose to impeach the president or vice president. That proposal will then require the approval of a two-thirds majority the Legislative Yuan before the case is sent to the Council of Grand Justices for deliberation in the Constitutional Court. If the court agrees with the resolution, the official to be impeached will immediately be relieved of his or her post.
For future constitutional reforms, any proposed amendments must first be approved by three-quarters majority of the Legislative Yuan before being put to a vote in a national referendum. Passage of such an amendment would require the approval of a majority of all eligible voters.
President Chen Shui-bian has said that by the end of his presidency in 2008, he hopes to complete a two-phase constitutional reform project and hand to the people of Taiwan a re-engineered version of the constitution.
As consensus has yet to be reached on issues related to national sovereignty, territory, and the subject of unification versus independence, President Chen has explicitly proposed that these particular issues be excluded from this round of constitutional reforms.
The Republic of China’s constitution was promulgated in Nanjing in 1947. This is the seventh time the document has been amended. For more information on Taiwan’s constitutional reforms, please click here.
