Central Election Commission (CEC) Chairman Huang Shih-cheng (
"The CEC should strive to attain the neutral and authoritative stance of South Korea's National Election Commission (NEC)," Huang said last Friday in the midst of the controversy surrounding the presidential election.
The CEC is a permanent organization responsible for overseeing national and local elections. It falls under the jurisdiction of the Executive Yuan and consists of 11 to 19 commissioners, who are nominated by the premier and have to be approved by the president. The CEC was founded on the basis of impartiality and commissioners from a single political party are not allowed to constitute more than two-fifths of the commission's total membership.
"The NEC is composed of nine commissioners, three of whom are appointed by the president, another three are selected by the National Assembly and the last three are nominated by the chief justice of the supreme court," said Control Yuan member Lin Chiu-shan (林秋山), who is an expert on Korea.
According to information provided by the NEC, the chairperson is chosen from among the nine nominees. Traditionally the chief justice of the supreme court is elected as chairperson.
By comparing the scope of duties covered by the NEC and the CEC, it is clear that the NEC has far more authority than the CEC, as the responsibilities covered by the NEC are more comprehensive. The duties of the NEC include the management of elections and referendums, the management of political parties and funds, publicity aimed at clean elections, prevention, surveillance and control of election law violations and electoral training.
In order to empower the CEC with more neutrality and authority, Lin said that codifying the commission in the Constitution was not the key. Instead, he says the key is the passage of a strong law that regulates election-related issues.
"In South Korea, there is a law called the Election for Public Office and Election Malpractice Prevention Law, which strictly bars government officials from campaigning for their political parties during elections, where even wearing colors that match those of the political parties is outlawed" Lin said.
The NEC played a crucial part in managing the recent turmoil surrounding South Korea's presidential impeachment.
"The NEC, which declared [President] Roh Moo-hyun in violation of election laws by voicing support for the pro-government Uri Party, first sent Roh stern warnings to remind him to stay neutral in his political stance. However, as Roh disregarded the warnings, the NEC proceeded with a parliamentary impeachment where the NEC handed over the matter to the national assembly," Lin said.
The NEC ruled early last month that Roh had broken the election law by backing a party before an April 15 parliamentary election, followed by two major opposition parties' decision to submit an impeachment bill to Roh.
"A similar law is needed in Taiwan to maintain the neutrality of government officials. During elections here, politicians wear hats and outfits that support their political parties. With this kind of law in place, none of this would be allowed anymore," Lin said.
Liao I-Ming (
"The so-called consensus decision-making mechanism should be made more transparent, as it is quite murky how the 17 commissioners reach decisions on issues," Liao said.
Liao added that each commissioner's term of office and the CEC's internal procedural operations should be made more specific, but discounted the idea of having non-governmental organizations to nominate CEC commissioners.
"This means of nomination is actually quite common in democratic countries to ensure the neutrality of their respective electoral organizations; however, this method might not necessarily be effective," Liao said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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