President Tsai Ing-wen has withdrawn her nominations for the two top posts of the Judicial Yuan.
The Judicial Yuan, one of the five branches of Taiwan’s government, is the nation’s highest judicial body.
Tsai made the decision on Sunday to withdraw her nomination of Hsieh Wen-ting and Lin Jin-fang after coming under fire from activists pushing for judicial reform. Critics say one of the nominees was out of touch with the public, and that the other was involved in the government when Taiwan was under totalitarian rule.
DPP lawmaker Huang Wei-cher said on Monday that withdrawing the nominations had hurt the president’s reputation and that more dialogue is needed.
“In the future, the nominees should engage in more dialogue with the public. Maybe the review panel could even invite groups or individuals who oppose the nominees to put forth their own recommendations in order to help remove barriers," said Huang.
President Tsai has said she will take academic accomplishments and practical experience into consideration when making future nominations.