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DPP hopes these elections are the last

Although the next generation of township chiefs was elected yesterday, the government remains committed to abolishing the elections in favor of official appointments by 2006.

The change means that the nation's townships, starting in 2006, will relinquish their status as self-ruling areas and become organizations administered by government appointees.

The move is expected to save NT$200 billion in government expenditure.

In order to prevent county or city officials from using the township appointments to enrich themselves, appointees must be national level civil servants of grade 10 (簡任第十職等).

In response to criticism that the change may violate the principle of "local autonomy," Liu Ming-chien (劉明堅), head of the Department of Civil Affairs under the Ministry of Interior, said yesterday that the public actually has a closer rapport with local village heads than it does with township chiefs.

Liu said that the appointments would also end political struggles between township chiefs and township representatives.

The nation's major political parties differ on whether the elections should be abolished.

The DPP has long sought to eliminate elections at the local level, noting that such small constituencies make the polls susceptible to vote-buying.

The Cabinet has made abolishing the elections one of its top policy goals but has yet to make substantial progress owing to resistance from local leaders.

The KMT, which has managed to preserve its upper hand in such elections, has opposed eliminating the elections, calling the planned reform anti-democratic.

The fledgling People First Party has not stated an opinion on the issue, though the Taiwan Solidarity Union has given its blessing to the proposed change.

Because regulations in the Legislative Yuan do not allow legislative reviews to straddle legislative sessions, and since the outgoing legislature did not complete the review process of a proposed amendment to the Law on Local Government Systems (地方制度法), a revised draft will be resubmitted to the new legislature later this year.

The ministry also plans to amend the Law on Local Government Systems to add more city and county councilor seats so that the public is able to sufficiently express its opinions in the future.

Translated by Eddy Chang and Perry Svensson, with

additional reporting by Crystal Hsu
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