Taiwan national assembly set to dissolve itself by approving  constitutional reforms News
Taiwan national assembly set to dissolve itself by approving constitutional reforms

[JURIST] Taiwan's largely ceremonial National Assembly [official website] will conduct its final business Tuesday as it votes on proposed amendments to the island-nation's constitution [text]. The passage of the amendments is virtually guaranteed, as the two largest political parties in Taiwan are both in favor of them and both have threatened to fire their delegations for failure to turn up and vote on the proposals. Among the proposed reforms is a plan to halve the membership in the nation's parliamentary body, the Legislative Yuan [government website in Chinese], which would effectively eliminate all minor political parties from the political process. The amendments will provide for all future constitutional amendments to be decided by a national, popular referendum. In its final act, the recently-elected Assembly [JURIST report], originally convened in 1946 on mainland China to ratify the Chinese republic's first constitution, will enact a self-dismissing resolution, abolishing the National Assembly as part of the government. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Taiwan [JURIST news archive]. Channel News Asia has local coverage.