If the current Legislative Yuan is dissolved, new legislative elections will have to be conducted under the new electoral system, the Central Election Commission said on Friday.
The commission made the announcement amid reports that the opposition was considering a recall of the president or the toppling of the Cabinet in the wake of a spate of corruption scandals implicating the close aides and family members of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
Election commission officials said if opposition legislators initiated a motion of no-confidence and won enough support in the legislature, and the president refused to budge and instead dissolved the legislature, then they would have to conduct the new legislative election within 60 days.
The new legislative election would be carried out according to the amended Constitution, including the new electoral system of "single constituency, two votes" under a re-districting scheme and the halving of the number of legislative seats to 113, adopted last June.
According to the recently amended law governing the election and recall of public functionaries, the legislature is required to give its consent to the re-districting scheme at least 13 months before the current legislature expires.
Commission spokesman Deng Tien-you (鄧天祐) said the draft re-districting scheme, which was mapped out by the commission after a lengthy consultation period with local election commissions and the views of academics and experts, has already been sent to the legislature.
If the legislature has not yet given its consent and a new legislative election is approaching, then the new constituency would follow the re-districting scheme mapped out by the commission, because the status of the Constitution is higher than the law, he said.
The newly elected legislators would be sworn in for four-year terms instead of the current three years, according to the amended Constitution.
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