KMT ‘rigged’ voting on pension reform: DPP

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) “rigged” a vote on whether to review its proposed pension reform by allegedly having someone impersonate an absent lawmaker, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus said yesterday.

The DPP said that the session records showed KMT Legislator Sasuyu Ruljuwan (盧縣一) had not signed in, but participated during the first vote — on the pension reform plan — while abstaining from the second and third votes.

Ruljuwan confirmed he was in China, saying that he was representing indigenous Taiwanese and visiting one of China’s ethnic minorities.

The DPP caucus yesterday held a news conference calling for the KMT caucus to respond to the matter.

The act fits the definition of forging a signature and contravenes the Criminal Code, the DPP said.

Staff from the Legislative Yuan’s Conference Department only distribute ballots to legislators after ascertaining that they have signed in and are present, DPP Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) said.

The DPP caucus would file a formal complaint with Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) and request an investigation, DPP Legislator Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) said.

The KMT caucus said the Conference Department was responsible for clarifying the issue, and that the matter should be handled according to the legislature’s regulations.

No one can force the staff to hand out another lawmaker’s ballot, so only they could answer why Ruljuwan was given a ballot when he was in China, KMT Legislator Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) said.

The DPP’s request for a thorough review would not harm the KMT; it would only cause the Conference Department to suffer, Wang added.

The department staff might have mistaken KMT Legislator Ting Hsueh-chung (丁學中), who wore a mask, for Ruljuwan, KMT Legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) said, adding that if that were true, it was an oversight of legislative procedure.

Without counting Ruljuwan’s vote, the voting would have ended in a 47-47 tie, Hsu said.

This would not have changed the result, as Han would have cast his vote in the event of a tie, and the result would have been 48 against and 47 in favor, Hsu added.

Taiwan People’s Party legislators abstained from both rounds of voting.