Surprise: DPP passes anti-nuclear measures

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- In what was described as a “surprise attack,” opposition lawmakers yesterday passed portions of their non-nuclear homeland draft bill during a legislative session, while Kuomintang (KMT) lawmakers called for cross-party negotiations after they learned of the results.

The Legislature's Education and Cultural Committee yesterday convened to examine various non-nuclear homeland drafts proposed by the Executive Yuan, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the Taiwan Solidarity Union and the People First Party.

Committee members began examining each article of the drafts in the morning, but were unable to reach a consensus over the name of the draft.

Lawmakers debated whether to include the words “energy safety” in the title, as well as whether to replace “non-nuclear” with “zero nuclear power.”

After three hours of discussion, several KMT members left the meeting for a lunch break, after which DPP lawmaker Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), chairwoman of the conference, announced a vote.

Of the 10 lawmakers present, seven were members of the DPP, allowing the opposition party to pass the first and second articles of their draft — “to achieve the goal of a non-nuclear homeland by 2015” and “to gradually halt nuclear power.”

The three KMT lawmakers who were present during the vote, Kung Wen-chi (孔文吉) Jeng Tian-tsair (鄭天財) and Lu Yu-ling (呂玉玲), voiced their objection and attempted to overturn the results in the afternoon; Cheng, however, argued that the vote was carried out in accordance with regulations.

KMT whip Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池) said that as long as parliamentary procedures are conducted according to regulations, the ruling party's caucus has no qualms; however, in order to ensure harmony within the Legislature, controversial articles should be discussed in cross-party negotiations.