CEC urges voters to go to the polls

The Central Election Commission (CEC) yesterday reminded the public to vote in today's National Assembly elections.

More than 16 million people are eligible to vote in the nation's National Assembly elections, the commission said yesterday.

Commission officials reminded all 16,750,870 eligible voters that they will be casting their ballots for political parties or alliances, not for individual candidates.

A total of 300 assembly seats will be allotted among the 12 political parties and civic leagues taking part in the election, in proportion to the number of votes they garner.

As the election coincides with the nationwide junior college entrance examination, the 13,910 polling stations around the country will open at 7:30am -- 30 minutes earlier than originally scheduled -- and close at 4pm.

The key mission of the assembly is to review a package of constitutional amendments that was passed by the Legislative Yuan last August.

The proposals include halving the number of legislative seats from 225 to 113, extending the tenure of legislators from the current three years years to four, adopting a "single-member district and two-vote" legislative electoral system, eliminating the National Assembly, making the Referendum Law (公民投票法) part of the Constitution and empowering the Council of Grand Justices to screen presidential and vice presidential impeachment proposals.

The CEC said that 300 assembly members will begin their one-month session on June 1.

Each assembly members will be paid NT$230,000 for month-long session.

"Twelve political parties or groups participated in this campaign," commission Chairman Hang Cheng-hsiung (張政雄) said yesterday.

"Five of them supported the idea of amending the Constitution while the rest of them disagreed. If you agree with amending the Constitution, simply vote for any of the five parties. If not, vote for any of the other seven."

The commission also reminded voters to answer the two pop quizzes on the poll notice they were sent and bring the notice to the poll station when they vote.

Those who correctly answer the quizzes will be eligible to enter a prize drawing.

The prizes are NT$1 million, a laptop computer, a digital camera, cellular phones, electric dictionaries and MP3 players.