Smackdown: Scuffle breaks out in Taiwan legislature over selection of CEC chairman
Taiwan News
Date: 2019/04/24
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
KMT legislators standing on desk. (By Central News Agency)
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A brawl broke out today in Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan as lawmakers clashed over a vote for the selection of a new chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC).
A meeting was held this morning by the Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration Committee to vote on the selection of Former Yunlin County Magistrate Lee Chin-yung (李進勇) to serve as chairman of the CEC. Although Lee had pledged to step down from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to maintain administrative neutrality in his handling of election-related matters in February, Kuomintang legislators expressed fierce opposition to his appointment due to his ties to the party.
Both parties gathered in full force at 6:30 a.m. this morning and at 9 a.m., this contentious meeting began with DPP Legislator Chang Hung-lu (張宏陸) serving as the committee chair, reported CNA. KMT legislators soon mobbed Chang’s desk and shouted slogans such as “Send back Lee Chi-yung, protect the CEC.”
As is the normal procedure, Chang attempted to open the meeting up to questions, but before any questions could be posed, the proceedings were derailed by a chaotic clash between the rival political parties. At 9:09 p.m., Chang announced that due to the ruckus, the question and answer session would end. [FULL STORY]
