National Assembly (Republic of China) - Abolition

Abolition

On August 23, 2004, the Legislative Yuan passed a series of amendments that included abolishing the National Assembly. Based on these proposals, amendments are to be approved from three-fourths of the quorum of members of the Legislative Yuan. This quorum requires at least three-fourths of all members of the Legislature. After a mandatory 180-day promulgation period, the amendments are then to be ratified by at least fifty percent of all eligible voters of the ROC irrespective of voter turnout. A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) proposal authorizing citizens initiative rights to propose constitutional amendments was withdrawn after it became clear that such a proposal would not pass the Legislative Yuan. Opponents of such constitutional reforms argued that by eliminating the 3/4 legislative vote requirement, a relatively small number of voters could force a referendum on Taiwan independence which would trigger a crisis with the People's Republic of China. By contrast, keeping the 3/4 legislative vote requirement would mean that any constitutional amendment would require a consensus among both the pan-green coalition and pan-blue coalition to be considered. The requirement that a majority of all voters approve the amendment allows for a party to block an amendment by boycotting the vote as was done with the referendums voted on the March 2004 ROC Presidential elections.

Under the Constitution, the National Assembly must then be activated to ratify these amendments. Such ratification of the constitutional amendments was originally considered to be a formality, a number of unexpected complications occurred in 2005. The first was the poor showing of the People First Party (PFP) in the 2004 Legislative Yuan election. The PFP was widely expected to merge with the KMT, but PFP Chairman James Soong became disenchanted by the idea. The second was the reluctance of the Taiwan Solidarity Union to pass the amendments. These amendments were seen by some Taiwan independence supporters as a prelude to a later declaration of independence, but the results of the 2004 election made this very unlikely. Faced with this outcome, the TSU became very reluctant to support a reform that would make elections by small parties, such as itself harder.

One final unexpected outcome occurred which gave the National Assembly elections on May 14, 2005 more significance than was originally intended. The National Assembly election was lined up immediately after trips to mainland China by KMT Chairman Lien Chan and PFP Chairman James Soong. This had the effect of turning the May 14 elections into an opinion poll on relations with mainland China which was undesired by the Democratic Progressive Party, though the DPP subsequently gained a plurality in the elections.

On June 7, 2005, the 300 delegates voted (by a majority of 249 to 48) the constitutional amendments into effect, and so effectively abolished the National Assembly.