Responding to President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) suggestion Tuesday that township mayoral elections should be scrapped, Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) yesterday said that the elections will take place at the end of the year as scheduled.
"To suspend the elections, we'd have to amend the law and submit it to the legislature for approval," the premier said. "The process would take a long time and may not be able to be done before the election. So we will [hold the elections] as planned."
Hsieh made the remarks yesterday morning when asked by the media about the nature of the president's suggestion on Tuesday. The premier was at a ceremony to award this year's "role model public officials."
"The president was talking about the future, not this year's elections," Hsieh said.
According to the premier, to delay the election period, the government would need to amend the Law on Local Government Systems (地方制度法) or put it to a referendum.
The Cabinet has previously attempted to amend the law and submitted a proposal to suspend the election to the legislature for a approval, but the legislature declined the proposal.
If the legislature rejects the amendment again in the future, the Cabinet will organize a referendum over the elections.
"I personally support the idea to eliminate the elections," the premier said.
Hsieh said that in the past, the government needed to hold the township mayoral elections because it was a good chance for people to experience the "spirit of democracy" and pick their favorite candidates to serve the local community.
"Nowadays, there is no point in holding a township mayoral election, so we will not waste our resources on such a thing anymore," he said.
The premier explained that process to eliminate the township mayoral elections may not be able to be completed before the local elections in December because there is only six months left before the election day. The legislature will not be back in session before September.
To hold a referendum on eliminating township elections would require the legislature's approval, as well and adherence to the Referendum Law (公投法) -- a legislative process that could take up to six months.
"There is no way that we can suspend it [the elections] this year so we will definitely go ahead with them," Hsieh said.
The Cabinet is currently working on a proposal to combine the three regional elections -- the county commissioner, city mayoral and county councilor elections -- into one big poll as the replacement to township mayoral elections.
In addition, the three-in-one poll was scheduled to be held in February next year, which is too soon for the changes to be put in place.
The rationale behind the proposal to combine the elections is to save money and manpower used in the election process.
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