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DPP to do `what it takes' to block CEC bill

"The Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] has taken advantage of the fact that it is the majority party in the legislature to do whatever it wants. This is not the first time and it will not be the last."

Wang Tuoh, DPP caucus whip

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus yesterday said that its members would do whatever it takes to boycott the draft bill on the organization of the Central Election Commission (CEC) after the legislature's Procedure Committee made the draft a priority for Friday's meeting.

"The Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] has taken advantage of the fact that it is the majority party in the legislature to do whatever it wants. This is not the first time and it will not be the last," DPP caucus whip Wang Tuoh (王拓) said.

Wang, who made the remarks during a press conference at the DPP legislative office yesterday afternoon, said that to date the KMT had boycotted bills on 296 occasions during the legislative session. The KMT proposed the draft bill and was trying to make it a priority because it was eager to protect its stolen assets, he said.

"The KMT believes that taking action against the CEC will help disrupt the referendum, which was designed to press the KMT to return its `stolen assets,'" Wang said. "We will not tolerate this. We will do whatever it takes to stop it."

While the KMT used its majority to prioritize the bill at yesterday's Procedure Committee, DPP Legislator Tsai Chi-fang (蔡啟芳), a convener of the committee and host of the meeting, immediately resigned his position.

"I think that the KMT did it on purpose and made this happen while I was hosting the meeting," Tsai said.

Earlier yesterday, the KMT caucus rebutted the claim by the CEC on Monday night that the election commission in the pan-blue-governed Taitung County had been convinced to adopt the one-step voting system.

KMT caucus whip Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) said the CEC announcement was inaccurate, adding that information he had received from Taitung showed that Taitung's election commission had not changed its mind on abiding by the joint statement made by the 18 pan-blue-governed cities and counties to boycott the CEC's one-step voting system.

After a dinner gathering with six local election commission chiefs on Monday night, CEC Secretary-General Teng Tien-yu (鄧天佑) told reporters that the Taitung County Election Commission had decided not to follow the pan-blue camp's decision.

"The KMT caucus strongly supports the joint statement made by the 18 pan-blue-governed cities and counties to adopt a two-step voting procedure [in next month's legislative elections and two referendums]," Tseng told a press conference.

KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇), who was at the conference, said CEC Chairman Chang Cheng-hsiung (張政雄) had told him that none of the officials who handled electoral affairs in the 2004 presidential election and referendums had ever complained about the two-step voting procedure used nationwide.

"The fundamental problem [with today's controversy] is that the CEC was trying to overrule a customary voting procedure for political reasons," Wu said.

Tseng said the conflict resulted from the fact that "there is no law to regulate the CEC."

"Therefore, the KMT caucus will take action to push legislation concerning the organization of the CEC," Tseng said.

Even though it came into existence when the KMT was in power, the caucus views the CEC as "illegal" because the organization of the commission follows the Organic Statute of the Central Election Commission (中央選舉委員會組織規程), whose status is not that of a law.

The KMT caucus proposed enacting legislation of the CEC through an amendment to the statute, which would turn it into a law.

The caucus initiated the proposal on the grounds that Article 8 of the Election and Recall Law for Civil Servants (公職人員選舉罷免法) stipulates that the organization of the CEC should be "regulated by law."

The KMT proposal has caused controversy in the legislature because it proposes selecting the members of the CEC in proportion to the number of legislative seats held by each party.

Meanwhile, Taitung commission chief Chuang Chung-wen (莊炯文), who was the only commission chief from the 18 cities and counties to attend the dinner, also dismissed the CEC's statement on Monday.

Chuang said he attended the dinner because he wanted to know whether the CEC had come up with a compromise on the two voting systems.

Meanwhile, Teng denied he had misspoken on Taitung's acceptance of the "one-step" voting procedure.

"The county's election commission chief, Chuang Chung-wen [莊炯文], never objected to the consensus while the issue was being discussed at the Monday night dinner and we therefore took this as consent," Teng said.

Responding to the KMT's statement, Government Spokesman Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉) said the party would have to take full responsibility for violations of the regulations set by the CEC.

Additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan and Jenny W. Hsu
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