A plan that would reduce the number of legislators from 225 to 150 was presented by the Government Reform Committee yesterday.
The committee, chaired by President Chen Shui-bian (
"There is no perfect system for elections, but we believe that the amendments we proposed today would stabilize the political situation ... and increase the efficiency [of the legislature] in passing laws," Chen said after the fifth full meeting of the committee yesterday.
According to the proposals, everyone will have two votes, one for a candidate in his or her district and one for a party.
The legislature would comprise 90 legislators elected directly from the districts, including six Aboriginal legislators, and 60 legislator-at-large seats, including four seats for overseas legislators.
The legislator-at-large seats would be filled according to the percentage of the vote each party receives. To qualify for legislator-at-large seats a party would have to win at least 5 percent of the votes for parties.
Taiwan currently has a "multi-member district" system, with some constituencies choosing more than 10 legislators, even though each elector has only one vote.
But the proposals have a long way to go before they become reality. Several plans for legislative reform have been proposed, including three by the DPP legislative caucus, which have to be reconciled and then passed in the Legislative Yuan.
The proposals would require the approval of more than 75 percent of the legislators present at a plenary session of the Legislative Yuan, which itself would require the participation of more than 75 percent of the legislature.
Elections would then have to be held for the National Assembly (國民大會), now an ad hoc institution which meets only to discuss amendments to the Constitution. Three-quarters of the assembly has to approve the bill for it too pass.
The DPP legislative caucus is scheduled to submit the constitutional amendments to the Legislative Yuan in mid-May.
If the proposals pass through the legislature and National Assembly in time, the new method of electing legislators would be implemented beginning in 2004.
Legislators elected in that year would have terms of three years, three months and 19 days, so that the following legislative elections would coincide with the presidential election in 2008.
Thereafter, both legislators and the president would be elected on the same day every four years.
Government reform was one of Chen's major campaign promises. The reform committee has finalized its blueprint for downsizing the Cabinet from 36 administrative agencies to 22 or 23.
It has also reached a consensus that the frequency of elections should be reduced, so that national and local elections will be held once every four years at the end of January.
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