The Cabinet was tight-lipped yesterday over rumors that the central government might take over the running of elections from pan-blue-led local governments to implement the Central Election Commission's (CEC) decision to distribute election and referendum ballots together for the Jan. 12 legislative elections.
When asked by reporters to comment on the matter, Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (
The CEC decided to adopt a one-step voting procedure, whereby voters will receive two ballots for the legislative elections and two referendum ballots when they enter the polling station and then cast them into four different boxes.
Eighteen pan-blue local government chiefs, however, have insisted their administrations will use a two-step voting process, whereby voters first cast their legislative election ballots and then be given their referendum ballots.
A report in yesterday's Chinese-language United Daily News quoted an anonymous source as saying that Vice Premier Chiou I-jen (
However, the Cabinet denied yesterday that Chiou had met with Chang Cheng-hsiung on Monday.
A Cabinet statement blasted the United Daily News report as "groundless" and demanded that the paper publish a correction today.
The United Daily News report came two days after President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) told an election rally that one option for ending the debate over voting procedure was to replace local election commission officials who refuse to implement the CEC decision.
In related news, CEC Secretary-General Cheng Tien-you (鄭天祐) said yesterday he had not received any instructions from the central government about replacing local election commission heads opposed to the one-step voting system.
"What's the point of having local election commissions if the CEC has to take over everything?" Cheng said.
Democratic Progressive Party legislators Hsu Guo-yong (
"The local election commissions are entitled to appeal to the CEC if they find it difficult to carry out the procedure," Hsu said.
"However, we have received no such appeal from either the Taipei County or city government. Instead, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (
Hsu said Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) had made the same threat to Democratic Progressive Party vice-presidential candidate Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌).
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus slammed Chiou yesterday, saying the central government does not have the power to override local governments' authority to handle electoral affairs.
KMT caucus whip Kuo Su-chun (郭素春) told a press conference that the DPP was attempting to cause chaos on election day by insisting on the one-step voting procedure.
"Wake up, DPP and stop trying to win the race by stirring up confrontations. Don't hog political power when it is time for you to give it up," she said.
Kuo said the caucus hoped the DPP could sign an agreement to guarantee "fair competition" and to promise not to resort to "rumors," "defamation" or "intimidation" during the elections.
Kuo said the caucus has proposed an amendment to the President and Vice President Election and Recall Law (總統副總統選舉罷免法) and the Election and Recall Law for Civil Servants (公職人員選舉罷免法) to empower electoral commissions, prosecutors or candidates to file lawsuits to annul any victory they believe was achieved through "deception, defamation or rumor."
She said the proposed amendment would prevent judges from reaching a verdict based on their own political preferences.
Meanwhile, the Taipei City Government said yesterday that it would not respond to what it called the central government's "daily threats" against pan-blue local governments over the voting debate. It also challenged Chen and the Executive Yuan, saying their recent comments showed they lacked legitimacy.
"The central government comes up with different measures every day, and the city government will no longer respond to them," Yang Hsiao-tung (
"The city government's stance has been clear. We will handle electoral affairs in accordance with the law and regulations. We hope the central government will calm down," he said.
Chen sparked controversy on Sunday by saying that among the suggestions he was considering to resolve the feud over voting methods were implementing martial law, invalidating the election results in pan-blue controlled localities, getting the CEC to delay the elections, or replacing local election commission heads.
Yang said replacing local election commission heads or frontline election personnel could create chaos as new staffers would not be familiar with electoral affairs.
Additional reporting by Flora Wang and Mo Yan-chih
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