In fact, what needs to be changed most is perhaps Taiwan's current legislative election system of "multi-member district, single vote" (複數選區, 一票制). Under the system, blind spots exist when relying on a primary -- either by party members' votes or by opinion polls -- to decide each party's nomination quota. Meanwhile, since the legislator-at-large and overseas legislators do not have to be directly examined by voters, the design goes against the norm of democratic politics.
In a word, if Taiwan's legislative election system remains the same, parties' efforts to establish a fair primary system will be, as an Chinese old saying goes, "sorting out silk threads improperly only to tangle them further" (治絲益棼) -- which means doing something which only makes matters worse. Rather than rack one's brains over a primary system, why don't Taiwan's political parties return to the basics and try to work out a healthy legislative election system in order to benefit the overall development of party politics?
Wang Yeh-lih is chairman of the Department of Political Science at Tunghai University.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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