Chiu to be punished over vice speaker poll

With 51 votes for and 14 against, the DPP legislative caucus passed a resolution yesterday saying that DPP Legislator-at-large Chiu Chang (邱彰) had "violated a party resolution" in refusing to show her ballot during the legislative vice-speaker election on Feb. 1.

The passing of the resolution means that Chiu's case will be passed on to the party's Central Review Committee (CRC, 中評會) for punishment.

The party alleges that in refusing to show her ballot, Chiu ignored a party resolution requiring members to show how they voted. Chiu's refusal, the resolution said, cast doubt on whether she had voted for the DPP candidate.

On April 1, the party's CRC voted 8 to 2 to strip Chiu of her membership. That ruling, however, was overturned by the DPP Arbitration Committee on April 3, because of procedural flaws.

Yesterday's meeting started with a videotape of the incident, after which Chiu spoke in her defense. Following Chiu, reports were presented by Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯), the party's former legislative whip, colleague Chou Po-lun (周伯倫) and ballot supervisors Wang Hsing-nan (王幸男), Chiou Yi-ying (邱議瑩) and Lai Ching-teh (賴清德).

Even though the meeting was help in a spirit of openness, there are reports that the party's Justice Alliance (正義連線) and New Tide Faction (新潮流) had agreed to vote in support of passing the case on to the CRC. The two factions mobilized their members for the poll -- during which all ballots had to be shown as was the case for the legislative speaker and vice speaker polls. It is thought that for this reason, the resolution was supported by such a large majority.

If the CRC decides to expel Chiu, she will become the third DPP legislator to be expelled from the party in its history, following Hou Hai-hsiung (侯海熊) and Chang Chin-cheng (張晉城). She would also lose her post as a legislator-at-large and become one the legislature's shortest-serving members ever.

In reaction to the landslide decision in favor of passing her case on to the CRC, Chiu said, "It's OK, I'll continue fighting," adding that she had submitted a request for a constitutional interpretation last week.