00:00A standstill in Taiwan's legislature, as opposition parties call to impeach President
00:09Lai Qingde, saying he's a threat to democracy.
00:30This comes just one day after opposition lawmakers requested that Premier Zhuo Rongtai be impeached
00:36too, after he refused to countersign a fiscal bill approved by the legislature.
00:41That move has stopped the bill from moving forward.
00:44But the opposition doesn't hold the two-thirds majority necessary to impeach President Lai,
00:49meaning it's unlikely to go through.
00:51Well, right now, three of the five branches in Taiwan's government, the legislature, the
00:57judiciary, and the executive are all locked in this power struggle.
01:02So it really sort of goes back to probably the constitutional court and the lack of filled
01:08seats, because during more normal times, these kinds of moments, whether or not a bill can
01:14or should be passed, would be given to the courts to decide its legality.
01:19But because the Blue-White Alliance has blocked all new judges from being appointed, and they
01:26also passed a law stipulating that there has to be at least 10 judges, where there's currently
01:33eight, the court is essentially frozen and cannot do its job.
01:36The constitutional court says that there were major flaws in the legislative process when
01:42these bills were passed in January, and that it violated constitutional principles, as well
01:47as Taiwan's checks and balances.
01:49That bill required a quorum of 10 justices to rule on the constitutionality of a case.
01:55But there are currently only eight justices serving on the court, meaning that the court
02:00was essentially unable to function for a year.
02:03And President Lai Xingde did nominate over a dozen justices to fill those spots, but the
02:09opposition lawmakers blocked all of his picks.
02:12And now the court has come out saying that this shut down a key branch of government and
02:17that these amendments are void immediately.
02:19Now, with the constitutional court back in operation, we'll have to see whether this
02:24can resolve disputes between the cabinet and the legislature.
02:28But remember that quorum requirement of 10 justices.
02:32Well, only five were involved in today's decision, which means that this raises questions about
02:37whether the decision today is even valid.
02:40We'll be keeping an eye out for more developments in the coming days.
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