Photography will be allowed for the first time during the vote-counting in January’s presidential and legislative elections, under a resolution passed by the Central Election Committee (CEC) yesterday.
“The legal foundation for defining recording [during vote counting] as inappropriate behavior was pretty weak,” said Chuang Kuo-hsiang (莊國祥), director of the commission’s Division of Electoral Affairs, adding that such activity was not expressly prohibited by the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法).
The act forbids voters from taking cellphones and cameras into voting booths, but says nothing about taking photographs or filming when ballots are opened and held up for spectators to see as the votes are tallied.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The commission had previously said such activities were within the scope of “other inappropriate behavior” banned by the law.
However, Chuang said the commission has not discussed whether to regulate photography during vote-counting now that the ban has been dropped.
Commission Chairman Liu Yi-chou (劉義周) last week was criticized over the ban during a question-and-answer session at the Legislative Yuan.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said the ban showed that the commission was still in the “Stone Age” because of the widespread use of camera-equipped cellphones.
The ban violated the principles of openness and transparency, while enforcing it was increasingly problematic, Chen said.
Chuang said that the commission’s decision to drop the ban was in response to demands by the Legislative Yuan, which has frozen a portion of its budget.
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