A premier's refusal to sign
Published 8 October 2026
The vacancy fight over the court reached a budget hearing on Thursday, May 21, 2026. Kuomintang legislator Weng Hsiao-ling accused Lai of failing his constitutional duty by not sending a new list. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an said Lai had already nominated 14 experts in two rounds and asked, "Should we keep submitting nominees only for them to be rejected again?" He later told reporters that whether to send another list was the president's decision and that he meant only to rebut claims of inaction. By then the seats had been vacant more than 18 months and Hsieh Ming-yang was acting chief justice.
Under Article 37 of the Constitution, laws promulgated by the president need the premier's countersignature per the Taipei Times. The Taipei Times reports that no premier had ever refused to countersign a bill passed by the legislature until December 2025, when Premier Cho Jung-tai declined on the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures. By the August 23 report he had refused seven times, including on amendments to rules governing the legislature. Jurist ties the first refusal to the period when the court was paralyzed. Soochow University's Su Tzu-chiao told Taiwan News that the refusals began while the court could not act and matter more because it works again.
On Monday, August 17, 2026 Cho announced he would not countersign two more bills: the Youth Development and Future Account Act, which creates government-funded savings accounts for Taiwanese under 18, and amendments to the Cable Radio and Television Act. The Executive Yuan's stated reasons for the accounts bill were that it encroaches on the Cabinet's authority over policy and the national budget, that corporate sponsorship of the accounts could widen the wealth gap, and that vague tax exemptions violate the principle of taxation by law. Cho also cited Article 91 of the Budget Act and Article 70 of the Constitution, arguing that the legislature cannot pass bills that raise the executive's fiscal burden.
Speaker Han Kuo-yu answered on Tuesday, August 18 that the Executive Yuan "cannot choose which laws to obey," that its refusal "risks undermining the entire constitutional order," and that he would hold the Cabinet to the same duty he had asked of his own party when he pressed it to pass the general budget. Cho replied by asking whether the legislature under Han had faithfully observed the Constitution, and said Han "has not spent enough time studying the Constitution and the Budget Act." Cho listed what a premier may decline to countersign: bills that violate the constitutional system, undermine fiscal discipline, harm national security or bypass democratic procedures. He said he acts "reactively and out of necessity." Taiwan News adds that, per UDN reporting, Han had just criticized Kuomintang caucus convener Fu Kun-chi to help push through the 2026 budget, and that the new refusals drew Han's Facebook criticism in turn. On Friday, August 21, opposition lawmakers fast-tracked a People's Party motion condemning the premier, with Kuomintang support, skipping committee review and going straight to second reading, with a vote possible in about a month. The paper notes that a censure motion "is symbolic only, with no binding force."
Where sources differ, the count of refusals depends on the outlet and the date. The Taipei Times line above says seven since December 2025. Focus Taiwan, citing CNA on Wednesday, September 9, put the number at eight bills blocked, and on Friday, October 2 UDN reported a civic group condemning Cho's eight refusals. The tally also has a break in it. Cho said on Friday, September 11 that he had countersigned the drone-industry act, the defense-autonomy bill from the opposition benches, after applying one test: a bill must not be unconstitutional or illegal, break the separation of powers or damage fiscal discipline, per CNA. Kuomintang caucus secretary-general Hsu Yu-chen answered that countersigning is the procedure a premier should always have followed, and noted that NT$55.9 billion for unmanned vehicles had been placed in the supplementary budget. The People's Party caucus asked whether the eight refused bills should be countersigned too. Democratic Progressive Party caucus whip Fan Yun said urgent defense needs could not wait.
One other fact bears on the condemnation motion. In December 2025 opposition lawmakers voted to ask the Control Yuan to impeach Cho, per PNN. The Control Yuan's previous members' six-year terms expired on July 31, and on Tuesday, September 29 the legislature voted down all 27 of Lai's nominees for it, per Focus Taiwan. Two of the 29 originally named had declined, saying they supported abolishing the body. A censure motion carries no binding force, and the body asked to impeach has no confirmed members to act.
The experts quoted disagree, and each is attributed by name. Democratic Progressive Party caucus figures say the Constitution authorizes the refusal. People's Party caucus convener Chen Ching-lung says the Cabinet should instead ask for reconsideration. Retired Tunghai professor Lin Teng-yau warns that before the court rules, the Cabinet cannot unilaterally declare a law unconstitutional. Su Tzu-chiao says the Cabinet should go to the Constitutional Court, and the legislature could too. Pro-Democratic Progressive Party lawyer Huang Ti-ying argues that the opposition's failure to start a no-confidence vote legitimizes Cho's stance, since a successful no-confidence vote would allow Lai to dissolve the legislature. Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai blamed the root cause on the boycott of court nominees. These are commentators' arguments, not rulings.
The 2026 budget finally passed on Friday, August 14, 2026, 266 days late. The Kuomintang and the People's Party trimmed 1.7% of the Executive Yuan's request overall. On drones, the government asked for a NT$210 billion special budget covering 1,446 reconnaissance drones, 208,200 coastal attack drones and 1,320 unmanned surface vessels. The opposition's version put NT$240 billion in the regular budget with a NT$40 billion annual cap, about a 45% cut to the yearly rate.
Passage was not delivery. On Tuesday, September 15 Cho said the Legislative Yuan had still not sent the passed budget to the president, calling it "351 days late." He said, "We are waiting on the budget with bated breath," and a Cabinet official confirmed it had not been received. Kuomintang caucus deputy secretary-general Hsu Yu-chen said Speaker Han had proposed on Wednesday, August 26 to deliver the budget before the new session opens on Tuesday, September 29, that the Democratic Progressive Party caucus agreed, and that the government was "using the lack of funding as a tool to incite the people's anger against the opposition parties." The 266 and 351 figures use different end dates. The count of 266 runs to passage on August 14, and 266 days before that is November 21, 2025. Cho's 351 runs to September 15, which would put the start about September 29, 2025. The Taipei Times does not state the starting date, so each number is printed with whose it is and what it measures.
The delay blocked money for people. The Cabinet proposed a NT$607.63 billion (US$19.08 billion) supplementary budget on Thursday, September 3. It would raise subsidies for older farmers to NT$10,000 from NT$8,110, for 530,000 people, and lift the national pension's maximum monthly payout to NT$6,715 from NT$5,437, for 1.76 million people. It would raise subsidies for disability, poor older people and low-income households by 23.5 percent retroactive to July 1, for about 890,000 people, and give a monthly raise to 720,000 military personnel, civil servants and educators. Supplementary budgets can only be activated on top of a general budget, so lawmakers could not take them up before September 29, and NT$299.2 billion of the general budget could not be used. The Kuomintang said 3.9 million people were affected by the delay and that the government and press were misrepresenting its position. The figures are a Cabinet official's account to the Taipei Times, and the Kuomintang disputes the framing, not the figures.
According to the announcement, the next test is the local elections on Saturday, November 28, 2026, for 11,051 officials with 19.65 million eligible voters. The date was the scheduled election day at the reporting cutoff.