After remaining silent and appearing defenseless in the face of pan-blue defiance over the one-step voting procedure, high-ranking officials from the central government finally got tough yesterday, reiterating the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration's stance that it would implement the procedure for the Jan. 12 legislative elections and referendums as decreed by the Central Election Commission (CEC).
President Chen Shui-bian (
Chang also said that using a two-step voting format would be against the law should the pan-blue local governments go ahead with it.
It is about time the central government toughened up and put the wrangling to rest.
The pan-blues insist on a two-step voting procedure, arguing that the one-step voting formula adopted by the CEC would create confusion for voters and result in disputes at polling stations on election day.
But what's so confusing about it?
Under the one-step format, voters will receive two ballots for the legislative elections and two referendum ballots at the same time and then cast them into four different boxes. So, are the pan-blues saying that Taiwanese voters are too stupid to follow instructions as simple as picking up four ballots and casting them into four different boxes?
According to the Election and Recall Law for Civil Servants (
The pan-blues' proposed two-step voting format would infringe upon voters' rights by exposing their preference to vote for the referendums should they have to collect their referendum ballots after voting in the legislative election.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (
The central government therefore, rather than engaging in a tiresome spat with the pan-blue local governments, has an even more important task at hand -- assuring the safety of voters when they go to polling stations.
Officials from the central government should issue a strong message to the electorate and promise that those who vote in pan-blue-governed constituencies will not face harassment or arrest when they demand to use the one-step voting procedure.
Donald Trump’s return to the White House has offered Taiwan a paradoxical mix of reassurance and risk. Trump’s visceral hostility toward China could reinforce deterrence in the Taiwan Strait. Yet his disdain for alliances and penchant for transactional bargaining threaten to erode what Taiwan needs most: a reliable US commitment. Taiwan’s security depends less on US power than on US reliability, but Trump is undermining the latter. Deterrence without credibility is a hollow shield. Trump’s China policy in his second term has oscillated wildly between confrontation and conciliation. One day, he threatens Beijing with “massive” tariffs and calls China America’s “greatest geopolitical
US President Donald Trump’s seemingly throwaway “Taiwan is Taiwan” statement has been appearing in headlines all over the media. Although it appears to have been made in passing, the comment nevertheless reveals something about Trump’s views and his understanding of Taiwan’s situation. In line with the Taiwan Relations Act, the US and Taiwan enjoy unofficial, but close economic, cultural and national defense ties. They lack official diplomatic relations, but maintain a partnership based on shared democratic values and strategic alignment. Excluding China, Taiwan maintains a level of diplomatic relations, official or otherwise, with many nations worldwide. It can be said that
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) made the astonishing assertion during an interview with Germany’s Deutsche Welle, published on Friday last week, that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not a dictator. She also essentially absolved Putin of blame for initiating the war in Ukraine. Commentators have since listed the reasons that Cheng’s assertion was not only absurd, but bordered on dangerous. Her claim is certainly absurd to the extent that there is no need to discuss the substance of it: It would be far more useful to assess what drove her to make the point and stick so
The central bank has launched a redesign of the New Taiwan dollar banknotes, prompting questions from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators — “Are we not promoting digital payments? Why spend NT$5 billion on a redesign?” Many assume that cash will disappear in the digital age, but they forget that it represents the ultimate trust in the system. Banknotes do not become obsolete, they do not crash, they cannot be frozen and they leave no record of transactions. They remain the cleanest means of exchange in a free society. In a fully digitized world, every purchase, donation and action leaves behind data.
RSS