The legislature on Tuesday launched a committee that will consider revisions to the Constitution of the Republic of China (Taiwan). This is the first time such a committee has been established since 2015.
The 39 members of the new committee were named on Tuesday. Positions were allotted to parties based on their number of seats in the legislature. The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has 22 committee seats, the Kuomintang 14, the Taiwan People's Party two, and the New Power Party one.
The DPP gave two of its seats to non-DPP lawmakers. One went to independent lawmaker Freddy Lim, and the other went to Taiwan Statebuilding Party lawmaker Chen Po-wei.
The committee will consider 17 proposals to amend the Constitution. Nine of these are about lowering the voting age from 20 to 18. There are also proposals to abolish the Control Yuan and Examination Yuan, among other topics.
To reach a legislative vote, a proposal must be backed by at least half of the committee's members who are present at a committee meeting that is attended by at least one-third of its members.
To pass in the legislature, a proposal must be approved by at least three-quarters of the lawmakers present at a meeting attended by at least three-quarters of all lawmakers.
If a proposal passes in the legislature, it will then be decided on by the people through a public referendum.