The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus yesterday vowed to put amendments to the election code to increase punishments for vote-buying to a vote on Tuesday if party caucuses fail to see eye to eye on the bill.
Tuesday is the last plenary legislative session held to discuss bills -- rather than questioning the premier and government officials -- before the Dec. 3 local government elections.
With the elections approaching, the DPP legislative caucus yesterday called on the pan-blue camp parties to support amendments to the Public Officials Election and Recall Law (公職人員選舉罷免法).
Although the Procedure Committee placed it on Tuesday's legislative agenda, the DPP caucus fears there will not be enough time to address the bill and hopes to push forward its discussion.
DPP caucus whip Jao Yung-ching (
However, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus' representatives, Legislator Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) and KMT caucus whip Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛), later went back on their promise and crossed out their signatures when the bill was scheduled to pass the second reading on Nov. 8.
According to Jao, who also signed the accord, the caucus representatives had agreed at the inter-party negotiation to increase the maximum prison sentence for candidates convicted of vote-buying from five years to 10 years, and the maximum fine from NT$4 million (US$118,900) to NT$10 million.
They also agreed to add a new clause to immediately suspend a candidate from office who is convicted of vote-buying and sentenced to imprisonment without pardon, as well as an article to impose a maximum sentence of two years in jail on civil servants who intend to pay other candidates to drop out of a race.
Only tougher legislation can more effectively deter vote-buying practices, another DPP caucus leader, William Lai (賴清德), said.
Lai added that if the amendments fail to clear the legislature on Tuesday, it is bound to have a negative impact on next month's election.
Lai said that the KMT had adopted a two-handed strategy on the issue, in which they visited district prosecutor's offices to showcase their resolve to combat vote-buying, while at the same time obstructing the passage of the Public Officials Election and Recall Law.
Jao and Lai later visited the KMT caucus with the hope of soliciting the support of its caucus leaders, but none were available to receive them.
The pair then went to see Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
Wang pledged to call a cross-party meeting tomorrow in a bid to iron out differences and, hopefully, reach a consensus before Tuesday.
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