The Taiwan High Court last Tuesday upheld a lower court ruling annulling the election of Liao Cheng-ching (廖正井), a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator for Taoyuan County.
Together with Chiang Lien-fu (江連福), Chang Sho-wen (張碩文) and Lee E-tin (李乙廷), four KMT legislators have now had their elections annulled for vote buying — Diane Lee’s (李慶安) election was annulled because she held dual citizenship.
Those convicted of vote-buying or who have had their election annulled for other reasons should return the public funds and salary they have received during their term up until the annulment.
Subsidies received — NT$30 per vote — also constitute illegal income.
It would only be right for the verdict to include an order to immediately return the funds to the state coffers — and maybe even add a fine.
Citizen Congress Watch and six other nongovernmental organizations recently estimated that each legislator that must be replaced costs the public more than NT$11 million (US$338 million) in election subsidies.
To that should be added the cost of the by-elections, taken from tax payers’ hard earned money.
It would only be fair and just to amend the law so that the return of these subsidies is pursued.
In addition, when legislators representing geographical constituencies are elected in by-elections, a generally neglected issue is that the number of legislators-at-large should also be adjusted in accordance with the by-election results.
The Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選罷法) stipulates that any party that receives more than 5 percent of the vote should be given legislator-at-large seats.
In the latest legislative elections, the KMT received more than 5 million votes and was allotted 20 legislator-at-large seats, while the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), with its more than 3.6 million votes, was allotted 14 legislator-at-large seats.
A rough estimate shows that one seat is therefore worth about 250,000 votes.
In other words, once a legislator representing a geographical constituency has had their election annulled, those votes should be deducted from the party’s total vote and the party’s number of legislator-at-large seats should be reduced in accordance to the adjusted number of votes, as a punishment.
That would be the right way to handle the issue.
The total number of votes for the five KMT legislators who have had their elections annulled exceeds 380,000. That means the KMT’s vote falls to about 4.62 million and they should lose a legislator-at-large seat.
The saying that “there is no master of elections, all that’s needed is money” explains how the KMT has long been able to use its massive party assets to entertain and control local factions and create a murky network of local vote captains.
Every election involves vote-buying and even coercion, which has infused the political scene with black gold and had a serious impact on social values.
As the philosopher Mencius once said, merely the law in itself is not enough to assure implementation.
Voter awareness is also required and voters must cooperate with the judiciary to be able to remove the vote-buying “tumor” and improve election ethics.
Otherwise, we voters, the country’s masters, will end up on the losing side.
Lu I-ming is the former publisher and president of Taiwan Shin Sheng Daily News.
TRANSLATED BY PERRY SVENSSON
As former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) concludes his fourth visit to China since leaving office, Taiwan finds itself once again trapped in a familiar cycle of political theater. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has criticized Ma’s participation in the Straits Forum as “dancing with Beijing,” while the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) defends it as an act of constitutional diplomacy. Both sides miss a crucial point: The real question is not whether Ma’s visit helps or hurts Taiwan — it is why Taiwan lacks a sophisticated, multi-track approach to one of the most complex geopolitical relationships in the world. The disagreement reduces Taiwan’s
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is visiting China, where he is addressed in a few ways, but never as a former president. On Sunday, he attended the Straits Forum in Xiamen, not as a former president of Taiwan, but as a former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman. There, he met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Presumably, Wang at least would have been aware that Ma had once been president, and yet he did not mention that fact, referring to him only as “Mr Ma Ying-jeou.” Perhaps the apparent oversight was not intended to convey a lack of
A foreign colleague of mine asked me recently, “What is a safe distance from potential People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Rocket Force’s (PLARF) Taiwan targets?” This article will answer this question and help people living in Taiwan have a deeper understanding of the threat. Why is it important to understand PLA/PLARF targeting strategy? According to RAND analysis, the PLA’s “systems destruction warfare” focuses on crippling an adversary’s operational system by targeting its networks, especially leadership, command and control (C2) nodes, sensors, and information hubs. Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, noted in his 15 May 2025 Sedona Forum keynote speech that, as
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) last week announced that the KMT was launching “Operation Patriot” in response to an unprecedented massive campaign to recall 31 KMT legislators. However, his action has also raised questions and doubts: Are these so-called “patriots” pledging allegiance to the country or to the party? While all KMT-proposed campaigns to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers have failed, and a growing number of local KMT chapter personnel have been indicted for allegedly forging petition signatures, media reports said that at least 26 recall motions against KMT legislators have passed the second signature threshold
RSS