The Executive Yuan yesterday completed the review of the draft bill of the Political Party Law (政黨法), which would ban political parties from operating or investing in a profit-making enterprise, including television and radio stations.
Parties that already operate or have invested in a profit-making enterprise would be required to sell the property or put it into trust within two years of the law taking effect.
But in order to spread their views, parties would be allowed to operate or invest in newspapers, magazines, books or publications, including online media.
The draft will go to tomorrow's weekly Cabinet affairs meeting for approval before proceeding to the legislature for further review and final approval.
The draft bill, which is considered one of the "sunshine laws," is listed as one of the priority bills that the Cabinet hopes to pass during the next legislative session, which convenes on Sept. 24.
The four "sunshine laws" include the political party law (政黨法), the lobby law (遊說法), the political donation law (政治獻金法) and the already-passed Trust Enterprise Law (信託業法).
The Legislative Yuan passed the Trust Enterprise Law (信託業法) on June 30, 2000, helping KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) to carry out his pledge in the run-up to the presidential election to put the party's assets into a trust.
The other three pieces of legislation, however, have yet passed into law.
Addressing the press conference after last night's closed-door meeting, Minister without Portfolio Yeh Jiunn-rong (
"We'd like to create a fair, competitive environment that makes sense for all political parties," he said. "We'd also like to set down guidelines for what a political party can and cannot do."
In addition, the government would like to see the financial records of political parties to be open and transparent and to see parties establish democratic mechanisms within themselves, Yeh said.
To create a fair and reasonable competitive environment, all parties would be entitled to fairly use public venues and the mass media.
A party that violates the ban on investing and operating a profit-making enterprise would face a fine of between NT$5 million and NT$25 million.
In addition, parties would be banned from establishing local chapters on campuses, in the military, in judicial institutions and in government organizations.
To make a party's financial records open and transparent, the financial sources of a party would be limited to membership fees, campaign donations, campaign subsidies or bank interest.
Parties would also be required to keep copies of receipts for at least five years and account books for at least 10 years. Their annual financial report would have to be ratified by a certified accountant and made public either through a government bulletin, newspaper or online.
A political party would also be prohibited from possessing any real estate except for that used for office buildings.
Parties which already own real estate other than office buildings would be required to sell the property.
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