‘VICTORY’:The court said it accepted Wang’s injunction because his loss of position as legislative speaker and a legislator-at-large would be irreversible if it was rejected
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
The Taipei District Court yesterday ruled in favor of Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng’s (王金平) provisional injunction seeking to retain his Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) membership and position as head of the legislature.
The court ruled that Wang would be able to retain his membership and rights as a KMT member after submitting a guarantee of about NT$9.38 million (US$314,300), Taipei District Court spokesperson Lai Chien-yi (賴劍毅) told reporters.
The guarantee was calculated based on Wang’s monthly salary and the remainder of his current term of about two-and-a-half years, Lai said.
The ruling was considered a victory for Wang in his battle with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to keep his political power.
‘ILLEGAL LOBBYING’
The 72-year-old senior politician, who has been accused of being involved in illegal lobbying of the judiciary, had his KMT membership revoked on Wednesday, which the party said should invalidate his status as a KMT legislator-at-large and as legislative speaker.
Wang decided to take the matter to court after the KMT failed to grant him a 20-day appeal period and immediately notified the Central Election Commission (CEC) about Wang’s party membership being revoked.
The court rejected the KMT’s offer of a counter guarantee in its challenge to Wang’s claim, Lai said.
Wang’s injunction was accepted because his loss of position as legislative speaker and a legislator-at-large would be irreversible if the injunction was rejected, Lai said, adding that Wang’s membership would not be affected before another civil lawsuit that Wang had filed said otherwise.
An additional temporary restraining order filed by the Wang camp late on Thursday night, which argued that Wang should retain his position as speaker, was dismissed, the spokesperson said.
Wang’s lawyer, Hsu Ying-chieh (許英傑), told reporters that the ruling was “a complete victory” in terms of the provisional injunction, despite dismissal of the restraining order.
“We are glad the judges have made a critical decision in this historic case,” Hsu said.
The lawyer said the court’s upholding of Wang’s claim was crucial because the KMT’s decision was a revocation of his party membership rather than as a lawmaker or speaker.
“As the revocation of Wang’s party membership was invalidated, the KMT’s moves after the revocation have been nullified as well, which means the CEC’s notification to void Wang’s speaker position was ineffective,” Hsu said.
Chen Ming (陳明), the KMT’s lawyer, told reporters that his client planned to file an appeal within 10 days.
Chen claimed that Wang was disqualified as a KMT legislator-at-large and as legislative speaker immediately after his party membership was revoked.
At around 9:30pm last night, Wang delivered a short statement calling for unity within the party “under the leadership of President Ma Ying-jeou” to work together to meet shared challenges.
Wang reiterated that he will be a KMT member “forever and ever.”
All eyes to be on legislature on Tuesday
EXPECTING FIREWORKS?KMT infighting is likely to be on everyone’s minds if the premier makes his expected report to lawmakers, watched over by Wang Jin-pyng
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
The opening day of the new legislative session on Tuesday is expected to attract far more attention than previous opening days with the public focusing on Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) amid the political feuding within the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Embroiled in one of the most fierce political controversies in recent memory, in which the KMT tried to remove him from the legislature for alleged illegal lobbying, Wang convened a party negotiation yesterday morning to discuss Jiang’s scheduled report to the legislature.
Party caucuses reached a consensus that Jiang would be invited to deliver a report — a traditional practice for every new legislative session — on Tuesday.
Wang’s presence at the negotiations was in question after his party membership was revoked by the KMT’s Central Evaluation and Discipline Committee on Wednesday.
According to the KMT, that meant Wang immediately lost his position as a legislator–at-large and therefore the speakership.
The 72-year-old, who was awaiting a final ruling from the Taipei District Court on his appeal to retain KMT membership, insisted that he was still speaker.
“I’m going to do my job as long as I am still the legislative speaker,” Wang told reporters in the morning.
Jiang stepped into the controversy, which has been widely seen as a well-planned vendetta by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) when he echoed Ma’s condemnation of Wang’s alleged illegal lobbying and said last week that Wang “was no longer competent for the legislative speaker position” and “we are ready for a Legislative Yuan without speaker Wang.”
Jiang’s comments have drawn strong criticism and accusations that he is contemptuous of the legislative branch and has breached the principle of the separation of powers as stipulated by the Constitution.
The premier is expected to face a difficult situation when he delivers a report to a legislative plenary session chaired by Wang rather than Deputy Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), who is said to be Ma’s preferred candidate to succeed Wang as speaker, after the Taipei District Court upheld Wang’s provisional injunction against the KMT.
The ruling means that Wang would still be speaker when the new session begins on Tuesday.
The KMT notified the Central Election Committee (CEC) right after the announcement that Wang’s party membership had been revoked, as the committee subsequently asked the legislature to void Wang’s position, a procedure that would officially oust him from the legislature.
However, the Legislative Yuan Secretariat has not completed that procedure.
Opposition party caucuses support Wang staying on, with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) saying that a speaker should be unseated by lawmakers rather than a political party.
Wang would hold the speakership until his KMT membership is nullified by a court in future rulings, Taiwan Solidarity Union caucus whip Hsu Chung-hsin (許忠信) said.
“If Jiang makes his report to the legislature as scheduled, it means the premier endorses Wang’s position as speaker,” Hsu added.