In a three-minute meeting, KMT lawmakers have advanced a controversial amendment that would raise the threshold to recall public officials while preventing DPP lawmakers from entering the room for the preliminary vote.
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00:00Amendments to election laws that would make it harder to recall public officials have passed committee review in the legislature
00:06After a rapid-fire meeting this morning with only opposition legislators in attendance
00:11A reporter Tiffany Wong is at the legislature in Taipei
00:15Tiffany how did this happen so quickly?
00:20That's right
00:21Well things are moving extremely quickly at the legislative UN here this morning
00:26Those proposed amendments to raise the threshold for the number of votes needed for recalling public officials
00:33passing out of committee review
00:36After the opposition going down legislators did everything that they possibly could to make sure that it would pass
00:42Take a look at scenes from this morning
00:45The Internal Affairs Committee was set to hold cross-party discussions on this legislation for the third time
00:52But instead the ruling DPP Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers were blocked from entering the room the KMT lawmakers
01:00Crowded the hall they even put desks and chairs in front of the door and even wrapped the door in
01:07plastic to try and prevent other lawmakers from coming in the KMT then held the meeting on their own without any
01:14DPP lawmakers present
01:17And there will be a direct review of the 32nd article. Do you have any objections?
01:26No objections
01:27Do you have any objections to the 43rd article?
01:31No objections
01:33Do you have any objections to the 52nd article?
01:37No objections
01:39Do you have any objections to the 53rd article?
01:43No objections
01:45Do you have any objections to the 67th article?
01:48No objections
01:51Do you have any objections to the 69th article?
01:54No objections
01:57Do you have any objections to the 75th article?
01:59No objections
02:01Do you have any objections to the 90th article?
02:04No objections
02:07No objections. Passed
02:09As you saw just there the committee review was called together by the KMT legislators and
02:14Adjourned in just three minutes. This means that the amendments can now be passed on to the floor for discussions
02:23Tiffany it seems like there's definitely going to be some sort of backlash over this. What reactions have we been hearing already?
02:33Well immediately following that three-minute committee review hearing
02:38DPP lawmakers immediately expressed their concerns about whether what they saw this morning is an obstruction of the legislative process
02:46one
02:47DPP lawmaker posted on social media
02:50comparing the KMT's actions today to the Chinese Communist Party another comparing it to a
02:57Reminiscent of a period of martial law now the DPP lawmakers are saying that the KMT really wants to raise this
03:05Threshold because they are afraid of their own lawmakers and mayors being recalled themselves
03:11but the KMT also held their own press conference saying that the DPP has used tactics like these in the past and now
03:19This legislative this amendment will be passed on to the floor for cross-party discussions in the future
03:26But we can be sure to see more clashes between the parties on this