Taiwan’s highest court has ruled that parts of controversial reforms put forward by the opposition-controlled legislature are constitutional. It says that certain parts, such as punishments related to investigations conducted by the legislature, go against Taiwan's constitution.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Taiwan's highest court has issued its ruling on controversial reforms put forward by the
00:05opposition-controlled legislature.
00:07Rick Glowart has been following these reforms.
00:10Rick, what did the justices say?
00:16Well in simple terms, Taiwan's top court has ruled that these plans put forward by the
00:21legislature to change the way that the government functions are partially unconstitutional.
00:27The legislature, which is in the hand of two main opposition parties, had wanted to
00:32give themselves new powers to investigate.
00:35They have been largely stripped down.
00:37They also wanted to make contempt of parliament illegal.
00:41That has been struck down, that's been deemed unconstitutional.
00:45And they also wanted to give themselves the power to call the president into the legislative
00:49chamber for questioning.
00:51That too was deemed unconstitutional.
00:54Now this issue has caused great divisions in Taiwan society, it's caused fights inside
01:00the legislature and big protests on the street.
01:04The main opposition party said this is about accountability, about balancing power between
01:08the executive branch and the legislative branch.
01:11Meanwhile, opponents say that these reforms would have gone too far, that they could have
01:16crippled the functioning of the government.
01:20So Rick, is this a win for Taiwan's opposition parties or the ruling party?
01:28Well Taiwan's main opposition party, the Kuomintang or the KMT, have expressed great sadness.
01:34The caucus whip of that party told reporters that this is a constitutional crisis and that
01:39judicial independence is dead.
01:42He said that the constitutional court had unfairly sided with the ruling Democratic
01:47Progressive Party, that's the party that have the presidency.
01:51So this ruling is going to do very little to bridge deep political divides here.
01:58The animosity between the legislature and the executive branch is pretty much crippling
02:03the government.
02:04They are the two pairs that are still in deadlock over next year's budget, set to affect everything
02:10from healthcare to defence.