Cabinet warns local election personnel

The Cabinet yesterday said it would proceed with the one-step voting system for the legislative elections and two referendums on Jan. 12 and did not rule out replacing defiant local election personnel.

Cabinet Spokesman Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉) told a press conference after the weekly Cabinet meeting that the government was determined to "remove all obstacles" that could sabotage the rule of law and threaten social order in the run-up to the elections.

He ruled out deploying the military, however.

"There are many ways to achieve this goal. Relieving election personnel of their posts is one of them," he said. "Taking over election affairs is another. We are in the process of preparing for replacements and replacement personnel are ready [if needed]."

The decision of the Central Election Commission (CEC) to use the one-step voting system was clear, Shieh said.

"We are calling on local governments run by the pan-blue camp to refrain from challenging the law," he said. "We will not allow `one country, two systems' to prevail."

The CEC adopted the one-step voting system, but the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) prefers a two-step voting system in which voters would receive legislative ballots and cast them first before receiving the referendum ballots.

There are tough and soft measures to deal with the problem, Shieh said. The former include legal repercussions, while the latter could involve communicating with local election commissions on the matter.

Shieh emphasized, however, that there would be no room for compromise.

He denied that executive officials would "intimidate" local election personnel, but they would come to understand the consequences of defying the law and the best way of protecting themselves.

The government was confident that law-abiding voters would be well-protected, he said.

If any disturbances did occur, Shieh said, the KMT should be held fully responsible.

Shieh said that Vice Premier Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) would head an election taskforce staffed with Cabinet officials as well as another five-person Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) taskforce to monitor the elections.

THE TAIPEI WAY

Elsewhere yesterday, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) urged the central government not to interfere with local electoral affairs. He said the Taipei City Government would follow the Taipei Election Commission's decision to adopt the two-step procedure.

Yeh Chin-yuan (葉慶元), commissioner of the city government's Law and Regulation Committee, yesterday challenged Shieh on the executive's authority to fire local election commissioners.

"According to regulations on local election commissions, the commissioners are guaranteed a three-year term. Although the commissioners were named by the Executive Yuan, it has no right to displace them," Yeh said yesterday at Taipei City Hall.

Yeh said the post of election commissioner is often filled by the deputy mayor rather than the mayor to prevent electoral procedures from being influenced by politics, and that no laws or regulations grant the Executive Yuan the right to remove commissioners.

The CEC has said it will only print out the illustration of the one-step voting procedure for the election, but Samuel Wu (吳秀光), commissioner of the city government's election commission, said his team would post illustrations of both procedures at voting booths and explain to voters that the city would adopt the two-step voting procedure.