Despite a plea for bi-partisan support by President Chen Shui-bian (
Cheng Yung-chin (
"The reforms run counter to democratic trends. If county commissioners are allowed to monopolize power, it will facilitate a collusion of common interests," Cheng said.
In such circumstances, the black gold problem would progress from the township and county municipality levels to the county level, Cheng added.
He said in order to fight corruption, the DPP government should step up its crackdown on criminal activities, rather than abolish the elections.
The proposed amendment, one of the DPP government's anti-black gold projects, was submitted to the Legislative Yuan in October of last year.
Under the bill, the mayors of townships and county municipalities would be appointed by county and provincial municipal governments after the terms of incumbent mayors expire on Feb. 28, 2002.
Township and county municipal councils would be abolished altogether.
The bill has made no progress in the legislature.
In a routine nine-member panel meeting headed by President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen reminded the opposition that the reform was an inter-party agreement reached during the National Development Conference of 1996, in which the KMT and DPP were key players.
James Chen (
"The DPP is trying to threaten the mayors of townships and county municipalities into campaigning for the DPP. If they support other parties, they may not be able to keep their positions after the offices become appointed ones," Chen said.
For decades, the mayors of 309 rural and urban townships and county municipalities in Taiwan have been elected by popular vote.
Currently, over 80 percent of the township and county municipal mayors are from the KMT, most of them heads of local factions and opinion leaders who help the party gain support during election campaigns.
Local elections, however, have been criticized as a cause of vote-buying and black gold at the grassroots level.
The DPP now rules 12 of the total of 21 counties and provincial municipalities.
If the mayoralties of townships and county municipalities are to become appointed positions, political affiliation is likely to become the main factor in determining who secures the positions.
Despite the KMT's disapproval of the reform, Chou Po-lun (周伯倫), convener of the DPP caucus in the legislature, said his party will negotiate with the opposition parties to try to have the amendment passed before the current legislative session ends in July.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
NO CONFIDENCE MOTION? The premier said that being toppled by the legislature for defending the Constitution would be a democratic badge of honor for him Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday announced that the Cabinet would not countersign the amendments to the local revenue-sharing law passed by the Legislative Yuan last month. Cho said the decision not to countersign the amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) was made in accordance with the Constitution. “The decision aims to safeguard our Constitution,” he said. The Constitution stipulates the president shall, in accordance with law, promulgate laws and issue mandates with the countersignature of the head of the Executive Yuan, or with the countersignatures of both the head of the Executive Yuan and ministers or
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
RSS