"The Cabinet should address the concern by drawing a comprehensive package, which would include keeping the elections with giving more authority for local autonomy or ceasing the elections and appointing professionals for those posts," said Chi Chun-chen (紀俊臣), former Civil Affairs director of the Ministry of the Interior and a political scientist at Taichung's Tunghai University.
Chi has been involved in the revision to the Law on Local Government Systems since 1997.
Based on the Law on Local Government Systems (
Over the years, however, the elections have come to be dominated by local factions and is riddled with money politics.
To eliminate money politics, the National Development Conference, convened by the then president Lee, reached a consensus in 1996 to end the elections.
The Executive Yuan then submitted a proposal to implement the consensus but it failed to pass the Legislative Yuan in 1997.
The Government Reform Committee, a consultative body to the president, made its recommendation to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) last month said that the local elections should be discontinued.
RSS