Taipei warned over its polling station procedures

The cabinet yesterday warned the Taipei City government to abide by the Central Election Committee's (CEC) regulations in implementing referendum procedures on March 20 or face penalties.

"A local government has the right to make suggestions; when, however, the central government announces the final decision, all local governments must abide by this," Cabinet spokesman Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), said.

"If Taipei City insists on implementing its own ideas then, according to the law, the CEC has to refer the Taipei City Government and its election committee officials to the Control Yuan for impeachment. This will result in penalties being imposed on middle and low-level election officials as well" as their bosses, Lin said.

"We will not allow any local government to adopt a `one country, many systems' approach to the vote and to abuse the law," Lin said.

The CEC has already approved a policy whereby ballots for both the presidential election and the referendum question can be picked up at one location at polling stations. As part of a pan-blue campaign of obstructionism toward the referendum, Taipei City decided on Friday to separate the referendum and the presidential election and forwarded its resolution to the CEC.

In reaction, the Cabinet immediately ordered the Taipei City government to desist from challenging the central government's authority.

Lin said that despite some local governments' claiming problems with the March 20 balloting procedures, all except Taipei City had agreed to follow the CEC's directions.

"Currently, only Taipei City's election committee still has issues with the operations on March 20," Lin said.

"Once the CEC turns down the Taipei City Election Committee's resolution, we will see whether the city government will abide by the CEC's policy," Lin said.

Lin said that the country's first-ever referendum is legal and that proposed boycotts from the pan-blue camp, including local governments under pan-blue administration, will only spark public resentment.

"We hope that Taipei City mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) will carry out his promise to abide by the law and restrain his administration," Lin said.