government’s new annual budget and a long-beleaguered military procurement bill. Parliamentary scuffles are nothing new in Taiwan, but what happened yesterday was the worst ever public brawl.
For the first time, doctors and nurses had to be called in and turned the offices into a temporary emergency medical centers to provide treatment.
The fighting was attributed to the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) opposition to a proposal by the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) to adjust the make-up of the Central Election Commission (CEC).
Chaos erupted in the afternoon when dozens of lawmakers from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) stormed the speaker’s dais to prevent the third and final reading of a proposal to revise the composition of the CEC.
Voting was called after in the afternoon representatives from major parties failed to reach consensus during the last-ditch inter-party coordination meeting on the issue in the morning.
The commission is responsible for administering all elections and is supposed to carry out objective and nonpartisan functions.
Lawmakers of the opposition KMT and those without party affiliations responded to the DPP’s move to block the voting by rushing forward to protect speaker Wang Jin-pyng, one of the KMT’s senior members.
DPP lawmaker Lee Ming-hsien picked Chen Chao-jung of the KMT and grabbed him by the collar of his jacket and tried to pin him down against a desk.
Dozens of other legislators shouted, pushed, shoved and pulled the ties of each other.
A couple of them were hurled onto the floor and several others engaged in wild chases during the melee.
Some climbed on a table and others hurled objects as they fought over the microphone and tried to prevent the other side from controlling the podium.
When the men were busily hitting each other, their female colleagues did not just watch.
DPP woman Legislator Wang Shu-huei flung a shoe at speaker Wang Jin-pyng, but it struck precisely at the face of independent lawmaker Tsai Hao standing next to protect him like a bodyguard.
Another legislator, the politically unaffiliated Yen Ching-piao, picked up the shoe and threw back at Wang Shu-huei and ripped up a DPP political placard.
Wang then hurled the shoe back at the speaker a couple more times again, though all missed. Yen then yelled at her with a stern warning. He was only withheld by other lawmakers when he attempted to charge to Wang.
Throwing his arms up, speaker Wang went back into his office under heavy protection. But an unidentified lawmaker locked his door from the outside.
Almost four hours later, legislators agreed to break for an hour for dinner and reconvene as late as midnight of the final day of the winter legislative session.
The KMT said CEC members should be recommended by political parties and selected according to the parties’ electoral strength.
At present, 15 of the 17 members of the commission nominated by the government and approved by the president took pro-DPP stand in all decisions, according to KMT lawmakers.
The KMT wants to change the rules to select CEC members based on the ratio of each party’s seats in the parliament. Not not a single party can nominate more than 40 percent of the total seats.
All resolutions of the CEC can only be adopted when more than half of all members attend a meeting with two-thirds of them take the same stand.
Such a new mechanism will give the CEC true independence without being used as a political tool by any single party, said the KMT lawmakers.
However, the ruling DPP, which enjoys exclusive power to name all members through the premier currently, opposed the new formula and tried to stonewall the bill which is ready for the third reading.
