By Tseng Wei-chen and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writerDemocratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers yesterday called on the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to display bipartisanship after they voted to authorize funding for the first phase of the Forward-Looking Infrastructure Development Program. The deadlock over the infrastructure plan was the most prolonged and intense legislative confrontation in Taiwanese history, DPP caucus convener Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said. DPP caucus secretary-general Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) denied accusations that the governing party was ramming the budget through by “packaging” it into a single vote. DPP spokesman Yang Chia-liang (楊家俍) in a press release hailed the passage of the National Sports Act (國民體育法) amendments and the infrastructure plan budget as historic achievements. The first-phase budget for the infrastructure plan would usher in an era of better living standards and reinitiate systematic infrastructure construction, Yang said.

Source: Taipei Times August 31, 2017 15:56 UTC