Taiwan's Executive Yuan has refused to countersign a law passed by the Legislative Yuan, sparking a constitutional dispute over who has the power to determine unconstitutionality and further escalating tensions between the blue and green camps.

• Control Yuan nominee Hsu Yu-wei said that officials of constitutional bodies may interpret the Constitution within the scope of their powers, and that the premier "absolutely has the authority" to do so.
• The final power of interpretation still rests with the Judicial Yuan, but the remark amounts to an endorsement of Premier Cho Jung-tai's refusal to countersign.
• Kuomintang legislators questioned whether executive power was overriding legislative power, arguing that the premier cannot decide on his own that a law is unconstitutional and therefore decline to implement it.
• Several nominees leaned toward a separation of powers into three branches, pointing out that the current five-branch system leaves powers fragmented and overlapping, but the threshold for constitutional amendment is too high for change in the near term.
• Another point of contention is the handling of authoritarian symbols, including the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and the portrait of Chiang Kai-shek on banknotes.

Outlook: The Legislative Yuan will vote on this slate of Control Yuan personnel confirmations, and the countersignature struggle between the executive and the legislature will not be settled any time soon.