Negotiations to end a showdown over the redistricting of electoral constituencies -- which could determine the course of the next legislative election -- failed yesterday, leaving mere hours for parties to reach a compromise before a legal deadline today.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) met for three hours to discuss redistricting in eight cities and counties where constituencies have yet to be finalized.
But the effort failed and no consensus was reached, Wang told reporters after the meeting.
"We will meet again tomorrow morning [today]. I am not confident [of success], but we have to get things done [today]," Wang told reporters.
Wang refused to elaborate on the difficulties that caused the impasse, but said that he and Su had received "no less than 100" phone calls from lawmakers who expressed their concerns over how the constituencies would be redistricted.
Wang said that both the Legislative Yuan and the Executive Yuan had to think about how to resolve the matter if he and Su made no further progress in today's meeting.
But Wang said continuing to use the current legislative election system instead of the new system was out of the question.
The next legislative elections, to be held in December, will mark a significant change in Taiwan's political landscape, as the number of legislative seats will be reduced from 225 to 113.
Moreover, voters will change from the current "single-vote, mulitiple-member districts" to a "two-vote, single member district" system.
In the new system, voters elect only one candidate per district for 73 seats, with another 34 seats decided by the proportion of votes cast for specific political parties. The six remaining seats are reserved for Aboriginal legislators, who are elected by their respective constituencies.
Because the changes greatly intensify the competition for available seats, political parties' fortunes could ride on the question of how consitutuencies are demarcated.
Article 42 of The Public Officials Election and Recall Law (公職人員選舉罷免法) requires that a change in constituency demarcation must be made one year prior to the expiration of the term of office of the public official concerned.
In the case of the next legislative election, the deadline for the Central Election Commission (CEC) to finalize the change is today.
The CEC said previously that, should the legislature fail to provide an amended version before the deadline, the commission would use its original proposal for new constituencies.
Wang, however, yesterday questioned the CEC's legal authority to make the change without the consent of the legislature.
The controversy stems from the language of Article 42, which says that redistricting can only be finalized in agreement with the legislature. While the CEC is required by law to make a proclamation of the plan by a set date, the law doesn't specify what the CEC should do if its original version fails to gain approval from the legislature.
"The CEC can only finalize the [amended] version that the legislature gives it," Wang said.
The electoral districts still in dispute are Taipei and Kaohsiung cities, as well as Taipei, Taichung, Pingtung, Taoyuan, Miaoli and Changhua counties.
Yesterday's meeting came in the wake of the legislature failing to agree to the CEC's redistricting proposal one year and one month before the expiration of the terms of sitting legislators on Dec. 31.
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