After a recent meeting between Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Ma proposed legal amendments to extend the terms of current mayors and county commissioners to five years and postpone this December’s mayoral and county commissioner elections to next year. The idea was to synchronize the mayoral and county commissioner elections with the election of the mayors of special municipalities at the end of next year. The rationale was to reduce the number of elections and their financial and social costs. This may sound reasonable, but it is problematic.
First, the year-end mayoral and county commissioner elections were officially announced by the Central Election Commission on Sept. 4, which said the terms would be four years. Under social contract theory, the terms of the contract with voters have already clearly stated that the terms for officials elected in the year-end elections would be four years and that this cannot be changed. It now seems, however, that the KMT, with its absolute legislative majority, can change laws as it see fit.
The Council of Grand Justices’ Constitutional Interpretation No. 499 states: “Therefore, the appropriateness of a democracy through representation lies in whether its public representatives execute their powers in accordance with those which were bestowed upon them and abide by their contracts with their electorate. One of the most critical aspects of this agreement is that, unless there is any proper reason for doing otherwise, an election must be held prior to the expiration of the term or there shall no longer be representation.”
The same also applies to the election of government officials. It is thus obvious that amending laws to extend the terms in office of the next mayors and county commissioners is in violation of the prescriptions of Constitutional Interpretation No. 499 and thus is unconstitutional.
The best solution would be to amend the law to reduce the terms of the mayors and councilors of special municipalities to be elected next year to three years, so that the elections for all local leaders could be combined in 2013. There is enough time to do this, it would not raise questions of unconstitutionality and it achieves the goal of combined elections.
Second, Taiwan’s system of local government autonomy is a mess. At the end of this year, townships will elect township heads and representatives, but there are no elections for special municipalities. How many governmental levels are there in Taiwan? How can such an overlapping, multi-layered system do anything to reduce social costs?
By the end of next year Taiwan will have five special municipalities. But do we have any national land planning?
These points show that Ma does not think ahead and that he lacks an overall plan for ruling this nation. I implore Ma to try harder and to stop treating the Constitution with disdain.
Wu Ping-jui, a former legislator, heads the Democratic Progressive Party’s Taipei County branch.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
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