President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday sought to garner cross-party support to revise the laws governing public elected officials in a bid to drive out of office the Kaohsiung City councilors who were involved in a recent vote-buying scam.
Under the exisitng Law on Local Government Systems (地方制度法) and the Election and Recall Law (選罷法), public representatives can be recalled only after they have been at their post for longer than one year, and their duties must be suspended only if they are found guilty by the court during a second trial.
According to the DPP's proposed amendments, public officials -- including lawmakers, city councilors, city council speakers -- may be recalled once they are indicted by prosecutors and their duties must be suspended if they are found guilty by a court during the initial trial.
The proposal, raised at the DPP's Central Standing Committee meeting, was initiated to compel the Kaohsiung City councilors to give up their seats after they were accused of being involved in the bribery scandal connected to the council-speaker election on Dec. 25 last year.
More than 20 city councilors were discovered to have sold their votes to Chu An-hsiung
According to the law, these city councilors can still perform their council duties until they have been in office for a year.
DPP Secretary-General Chang Chun-hsiung
Chen told the committee members that he hopes to win support from other parties to enable the law be revised at the next legislative session. He would like the make-up election to be held as soon as possible.
Angered by the fact that these city councilors can still hold onto their seats, the TSU and several social groups in Kaohsiung are considering launching a protest after the Lunar New Year in order to pressure the suspect councilors to resign.
Chang said yesterday that the DPP has not yet decided to join the event because the party believed that making use of the power of the law would be more effective than resorting to street demonstrations.
The Central Standing Committee meeting also touched upon whether the party should form a new mechanism to beef up communication among governmental departments.
On Sunday, more than 30 DPP lawmakers endorsed a proposal to set up a new channel to improve the communication and coordination among the Cabinet, the party leadership and the party's legislative caucus.
The lawmakers complained that without such a mechanism, they often had little knowledge about the government's policies, making it difficult for them to advocate the policies or defend them in the legislature.
Chen said that the party would strive to improve interdepartmental communication.
But the president added that he hoped the party's 88 lawmakers would first sort out their opinions, and then present their conclusions to the Central Standing Committee by Jan. 28 for further review.
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