South Korea impact? Taiwan reviews martial law provisions to make its imposition harder

Days after South Korea witnessed a week of drama over the imposition of martial law, Taiwan on Friday began reviewing its own martial law provisions to make it harder for the president to declare it.

The Taiwanese opposition party Kuomintang has called for amending the law after South Korea Yoon Suk Yeol declared an emergency under martial law and later withdrew the order, triggering a massive political unrest which saw an impeachment motion being moved against him.

Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu has said that lawmakers would discuss the possible changes that can be made to the martial law following which Taiwan’s President Lai has to ratify it within 24 hours of declaring it, according to a report by Bloomberg. The provisions of martial law in Taiwan have not been amended in 75 years.

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In the January elections, Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party secured Taiwan’s presidency, but his party lost its legislative majority. This shift enabled the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party to collaborate on passing legislation aimed at limiting presidential powers. These actions have heightened political tensions and sparked widespread protests.

When the South Korean martial law showdown was at its peak, DPP made a comparison between the two countries saying that the situation in South Korea was similar to Taiwan’s. It, however, retracted the statement later.

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“South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol announced emergency martial law nationwide to protect the free constitutional system,” the post read. The ruling party also blamed the Opposition for obstructing national security proposals, “unconstitutionally expanding” their powers and cutting the defence budget.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s opposition leader on Friday urged ruling party lawmakers to side with the “people” and impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol over his failed martial law bid, a day before a second parliamentary vote that appears on a knife edge.

A week after a first attempt to remove Yoon from the martial law debacle foundered, the country’s National Assembly will vote Saturday around 4:00 pm (0700 GMT) on whether to impeach the president for “insurrectionary acts undermining the constitutional order”.

With inputs from agencies