Amid heated debate, the Central Election Commission (CEC) yesterday approved regulations that would allow the premier to remove local election commission members from office upon the CEC's request.
The move is seen by many pan-blue politicians as a measure giving the Cabinet the power to replace local election commission members who insist on adopting the two-step voting scheme.
The CEC on Nov. 16 decided to adopt a one-step voting procedure, with both election and referendum ballots being handed out to voters at the entrance of polling stations when two referendums are held simultaneously with the legislative elections on Jan. 12.
Pan-blue camp politicians and the heads of 18 pan-blue controlled cities and counties have insisted on adopting a two-step voting scheme in which voters will have to cast their election ballot first before getting the referendum ballots.
The controversy heightened when the Cabinet recently said it might replace local election commission heads that refused to abide by the CEC's rules."Taiwan's democracy is facing its biggest threat. The CEC should be a neutral and fair organization, but it has become an election tool controlled by President Chen Shui-bian [
In response to Hsinchu Mayor Lin Junq-tzer's (林政則) decision to resign as the city's election commissioner, Huang Yu-cheng (黃玉振), commissioner of the KMT's cultural and communication committee, said it was Lin's decision and that other commissioners supported two-step voting.
"Local commissioners and commission members have rich experience in handling election affairs and they will not be intimidated easily by the Cabinet or the CEC," Huang said.
Acting commissioner of Taitung County Election Commission Chuang Chiong-wen (
Chuang said he left the post to avoid conflict with Taitung County Commissioner Kwong Li-jen (
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (
Taoyuan County Commissioner Chu Li-lun (朱立倫) and Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋), on the other hand, both stressed that their election commissions would stick to the two-step voting mechanism, urging the Cabinet and Presidential Office not to intervene with election affairs and damage the CEC's neutrality.
"More than 90 percent of commission members have agreed to adopt the two-step voting system. We haven't changed our position," Chu said yesterday before attending a municipal event in Taipei.
Chou dared the CEC to change not only local commissioners, but also tens of thousands of front-line election personnel if it could find enough staff members.
Meanwhile, Vice Premier Chiou I-yen (
"We will do our best and use the most forceful measures to eliminate difficulties in implementing the one-step voting format," Chiou said at the Cabinet's year-end press conference.
There is certainly "a price to pay" as the pan-blue camp is still at loggerheads with the CEC over the voting format, but the country will pay "an ever higher price" if the government does not uphold one-step voting, Chiou said.
"It's not today that we start elections. The electoral system has been implemented for over half a century, but never before have local governments refused to abide by the voting format decided by the CEC. It's only happening now when the KMT is not in power," Chiou said.
There is no reason for the government to refrain from enforcing one-step voting, as the CEC has the authority to decide, he said.
Meanwhile, Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (
"I dare say that there will be a great impact on the March presidential election if [pan-blue local governments] decide to adopt the two-step voting format," Chang said without elaborating.
Chang restated that "administrative, criminal and political responsibilities" would fall upon politicians who do not abide by the one-step voting format.
Meanwhile, KMT caucus whip Kuo Su-chun (郭素春) said the CEC's "controversial" amendments showed the Democratic Progressive Party's attempt to create chaos and influence swing voters.
Another KMT caucus whip, Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權), said the amendments were "unacceptable" because they did not help resolve the voting procedure controversy.
Tsend also said that any regulation made by the CEC giving it the power to replace local commission directors would be "illegitimate" and "unconstitutional."
"Organic statutes of local election commissions are merely administrative orders," Tseng said.
"What's more, Article Eight of the Election and Recall Law for Civil Servants (公職人員選舉罷免法) -- the legal basis of the CEC's move to amend the organic statutes -- does not include any regulation enabling the CEC to replace local election commissioners," he said.
Tseng said that any change of the "rules of the game" should only apply to future election commissions.
Asked to comment on the resignation of Lin Cheng-tse, Tseng said the resignation proved Cabinet interference in the CEC.
As expected, the discussion yesterday on four amendments concerning the removal of local election commission members into an organic bill on local election commissions was a heated one.
"I don't think it's fair to pass `clauses' that will allow the removal of local election commission members -- it's a humiliation," said Non-Partisan Solidarity Union recommended CEC member Rai Hau-min (賴浩敏) when approached for comment before the meeting. "As most commission members do not draw a salary, it's not right to punish people who work as volunteers."
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-recommended member Liu Kuang-hua (
"Organic bills and regulations on personnel affairs should be separate," he said.
After a three-hour meeting, three of the amendments were passed, but the most controversial one was dropped.
"The commission approved amendments allowing the premier to remove local election commission members upon the request of the CEC," CEC Secretary-General Teng Tien-yu (
The amendments stipulate that local election commission members may be removed from office because of severe illness, involvement in illegal conduct or for abandoning their official duties, being detained or indicted, Teng said.
A fourth proposal that they may be fired if they engage in "behavior that may damage the institution's credibility or legitimacy in execution of one's official duties" was dropped because it was too controversial, Teng said.
The CEC may only request a local commission member's removal following ratification by a commission meeting, Teng said.
Teng did not respond when asked if insisting on two-step voting would qualify as "abandoning official duties."
The amendments will be submitted to the Cabinet for approval.
Meanwhile, rocked by the resignations of two local election commissioners, the KMT yesterday dismissed concerns that some of the 18 local governments governed by pan-blues were wavering from their stance on the two-step voting system, while urging the Cabinet to refrain from further damaging the neutrality of the CEC.
KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) called on all pan-blue local election commissions to consolidate their efforts and support the two-step voting format, but declined to comment on the party's strategy in response to the Cabinet's "threat" to replace local election commissioners who fail to follow the one-step voting scheme.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never