Minister slams vote postponement

The minister of the interior yesterday all but accused the Taipei City Government of abuse of power for postponing the Taipei borough-warden elections.

"The grounds for the postponement are too weak. The decision could be considered an abuse of administrative power," Yu Cheng-hsien (余政憲) said in the Legislative Yuan in response to a question from independent legislator Kao Meng-ting (高孟定).

Kao had asked whether the Taipei City Government's decision complied with the Law on Local Government Systems (地方自治法). The minister made no explicit reference to the law in his answer.

The Taipei City Council passed the Autonomous Regulation Governing the Taipei City Borough Organization last Wednesday night. The legislation calls for a postponement of the elections -- originally scheduled to be held on June 8 -- until a redrawing of Taipei's borough boundaries has been completed.

The city government has argued that the right to change the date of local elections is an inherent right of local governments.

"Under current regulations, the local government has the right to take the decision to postpone this election. If the MOI thinks that we are abusing our administrative power, we could ask scholars and experts to explain the regulation," said Lin Cheng-hsiu (林正修), director of the city's Bureau of Civil Affairs.

"The minister of the interior should respect the local government, even though it is responsible for overseeing the exercise of local autonomy," Lin added.

Liu Wen-shih (劉文仕), director of the ministry's civil affairs department, said "Using a new [local] statute to change the election date is a violation of the law, since the need to implement legislation is not sufficient grounds for changing the election date."

The Election and Recall Law (選舉罷免法) states that election dates may be changed in the event of "special incidents," but does not define the term.

Liu said that "apart from disasters, if two elections are scheduled within a short time of each other, the dates can be changed so that they are held on the same day."

Lin, however, said that Taiwan Provincial Government had changed election dates on six occasions in the past and that the city government had done so twice, but that none of the changes had been prompted by a "special incident."

Under the Law on Local Govern-ment Systems, local governments are responsible for holding borough-warden elections, but the central government is required to monitor the city government's conduct of the elections.

"Under Article 75 of the Law on Local Government Systems, when the special municipality's exercise of its local autonomy violates the regulations or the Constitution, the supervising department of the central government has the right to report the case to the Executive Yuan which can stop the local government's conduct," Yu remarked yesterday.

While the minister made his remarks in the legislature, DPP legislators were holding a press conference at the party's legislative caucus office. They said that "the Ma Ying-jeou administration's decision was made for no other reason than to oppose the central government."

"Implementing the new amendment is nothing to do with the election. Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) just wants to practice `one country, two-systems' in Taiwan," said Chen Chao-lung (陳朝龍), one of the legislators.