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CEC official stands firm on policy of ballot validity

Central Election Commission (CEC) Chairman Huang Shih-cheng (黃石城) told the Legislative Yuan yesterday that the commission would take responsibility if anything goes wrong with vote counting on election day.

"There should not be any problems, but if anything occurs, the commission will shoulder responsibility," he said.

The commission's decision on Thursday night to consider misplaced presidential ballots to be valid votes was questioned by legislators yesterday.

Huang said that the announcement of the official results of election will be delayed for two or three hours as result of the decision.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Huang Teh-fu (黃德福) said the two-stage vote counting would leave room for cheating at voting centers and urged the CEC to reconsider its decision.

"We all know that once a student gets caught cheating in an examination, the student will get a zero on his exam

However, a misplaced ballot is still considered valid," Huang Teh-fu said.

Huang Shih-cheng pointed out that with over 10 million eligible voters, it might not be possible for administrative officers at voting centers to do a perfect job of monitoring the election.

He said that the officers will stop voters who try to intentionally misplace ballots. However, he said, there are currently no regulations dealing with officers' negligence, which may result in misplaced ballots.

The commission received a vote of confidence from Premier Yu Shyi-kun yesterday when he said that he respected the decision it made on Thursday.

Yu said the decision was made to solve an operational mechanism; the decision was based on the commission's discussion as whole and that it was the right decision to make.

However, at a Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) breakfast meeting, TSU Legislator Ho Min-hao (何敏豪) said that the rules of the game should not be changeable and the commission should have a clear explanation on the exact rules on the election day.

Commission Secretary-General Tsai Li-cher (蔡麗雪) said the decision that misplaced presidential ballots would be valid had been made jointly by the commission members, but there was no guarantee that this would be the end of the matter.

Tsai explained that the CEC only holds a meeting when necessary; therefore, she cannot guarantee that Thursday's decision would be the final one on the issue.

"Although some members felt that misplaced ballots should be invalid, as the commission's decision-making mechanism is one of consensus, the commission as a whole agreed to consider such ballots valid," the secretary-general said.
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