Around 100 gather outside Legislature over controversial reform bills

Taipei, May 17 (CNA) Nearly 100 people gathered outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei Friday night, as lawmakers reviewed controversial legislative reform bills tabled by opposition parties.

Around 9 p.m., the protesters gathered outside the Legislature, chanting "no discussions, no democracy," referring to the way the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People's Party tried to use their majority to push the bills through a second reading.

Some of them told reporters that they are young people and students who came to the Legislative Yuan after watching the two opposition parties' "unreasonable" actions through the day.

Lo Yi (羅宜) echoed the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers' claims that voting the bills through without the content of the proposed amendments being read out during Friday's legislative floor session showed a lack of transparency in the process.

In the Legislature, several DPP lawmakers became physical in their protests against the two opposition parties' move to push the bills through, following a day of chaotic voting on the parliamentary reform bills.

The DPP argued that the bills skipped the committee review, which the ruling party's lawmaker Wu Szu-yao (吳思瑤) described as unprecedented, citing how former legislative speakers Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) of the KMT and You Si-kun (游錫堃) of the DPP took time on inter party-interpellation over major bills.

A failed attempt by DPP lawmaker Puma Shen (沈伯洋) and fellow lawmakers of the ruling party to physically force their way onto the podium on the Legislature floor led to Shen being taken to nearby National Taiwan University Hospital around 7 p.m.

According to Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT, five DPP and one KMT lawmakers taken to the hospital have since gone home, while DPP lawmakers said Shen suffered a concussion.

As of 11 p.m. around 100 lawmakers in the 113-seat Legislature were still voting on the proposed amendment to the Law Governing the Legislative Yuan's Power article by article.

Update

● Article by article review of reform bills halted until May 21

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