Wed, Jul 21, 2004 page3

• CEC defends date for election

  `UNFAIR ELECTION DATE' The Chinese Nationalist Party blasted the Commission 's decision to hold legislative elections the day after the Kaohsiung Incident's anniversary

  • By Debby Wu / STAFF REPORTER
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  The Central Election Commission (CEC) yesterday denied the accusation made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus that the commission chose Dec. 11 as the date for the legislative elections to improve the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) chances, since the 25th anniversary for the Kaohsiung Incident is on December 10.

  KMT caucus whip Huang Teh-fu (黃德福) yesterday pointed out that all elections in the past ten years took place on the last Saturday of November or on the first Saturday of December, but this year's legislative election will break the tradition and will fall on the second Saturday of December: Dec. 11.

  "But Dec. 10 is the 25th anniversary of the Kaohsiung Incident. I do not believe this to be accidental, but this is a political maneuver," Huang said.

  Huang pointed out that the DPP is planning to hold various activities on Dec. 10, and it would certainly appeal to the public with the Kaohsiung Incident, hoping to improve the turnout for the election.

  "Holding the legislative elections on the day after the 25th anniversary of the Kaohsiung Incident will surely have an impact on the election, and we hope that the CEC will exclude all factors which can have an impact on the election," Huang said.

  But the CEC denied that the commission made the decision to help the DPP with its campaign.

  "We set the election on Dec. 11 because some commission members suggested we shorten the period between the election date and the inauguration date on Feb. 1, so we decided to postpone the date from the customary first Saturday in December to the second," the chief of the CEC's First Section Yu Ming-hsien (余明賢) said.

  Yu is the official in charge of the election schedule.

  Yu said that there was no other reason that affected the decision, and said that while the legislative elections for the third, fourth, and fifth legislative groups was held on the first weekend of December, the election for the second legislative group was held on the third weekend of December, and there was not any fixed date for a legislative election.

  "The date was decided by the commission members on May 5, when the members had a meeting," CEC Deputy Secretary-General Teng Tien-yu (鄧天佑) said.

  Teng said that the commission will hold another meeting on July 23 and he will present the KMT caucus' opinions to the commission members for discussion.

  The DPP yesterday also denied that it interferes with the CEC's decision-making process.

  "Besides, Dec. 10 is International Human Rights Day. It is not a day belonging to the DPP alone," DPP Deputy Secretary-General Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) said.
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