Taiwan's political deadlock has escalated, with opposition parties demanding that Premier Cho Jung-tai countersign legislation before they will agree to unfreeze the budget. The ruling party has criticised this as turning a constitutional dispute into a transaction — bad news for the political situation.

• Opposition lawmakers have made the unfreezing of the budget conditional on the Premier countersigning the legislation, drawing criticism that they are using money as an inducement.
• Cho Jung-tai has said the deadline for the unsigned legislation has passed, making it impossible to add his signature now.
• The DPP caucus argues that the power of countersignature is written into the Constitution and has remained untouched through seven rounds of constitutional amendment; it is not a rubber stamp.
• A constitutional dispute of this kind should be settled by the Constitutional Court, but the Legislative Yuan has already brought the court to a standstill — in effect sealing off its own way out.
• The ruling party has pointed out that the opposition still has another option: a no-confidence motion. The price, however, could be the dissolution of the legislature and a full round of new elections.

Outlook: The deadlock is unlikely to be resolved in the short term, and the results of the year-end elections will be the real arbiter of this constitutional struggle.