The battle for political control lies at the heart of the dispute over the proposed amendment to the Central Election Commission (CEC) Organic Law (中央選舉委員會組織法), which has led to countless brawls in the legislature, analysts said yesterday.
The bill, which is scheduled for review today, is expected to trigger another round of political fighting, as lawmakers have vowed to hold their ground after the last negotiation failed on Monday.
The dispute centers on the composition of the 17-member Central Election Commission (CEC), which is tasked with preparing for and conducting elections and national referendums.
Under the version recently proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), CEC members are to be divided into two categories, with 12 of the commission's members being drawn from lists presented by registered political parties and five being non-party members.
For the first category, the premier will select half from a list of 12 candidates provided by the KMT and the People First Party and half from a list of 12 recommended by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Taiwan Solidarity Union.
As for the five non-party members, the premier will choose two from a list of four representatives recommended by the pan-blue camp, another two from the pan-green camp's list of four and one from a list of two candidates provided by the Non-Partisan Solidarity Union (NPSU).
The premier is enjoined to select five non-party members in consultation with the legislative speaker. All 17 appointments have to be confirmed by the legislature.
This latest version of the bill represented a change from the pan-blue camp's initial proposal that the CEC be made up of members recommended by parties in proportion to the number of their legislative seats.
The revision came in the wake of criticism that the KMT's original proposal would duplicate the same flaws that have plagued the enactment of the Organic Law of the National Communications Commission.
The National Communications Commission (NCC) bill provides for the initial selection of 18 candidates -- three by the Cabinet and 15 by political parties -- in proportion to the number of seats they held in the legislature.
An evaluation panel of 11, whose representatives are appointed by parties in proportion to their number of legislative seats, pick the 13 members of the NCC from the 18 candidates.
The method was ruled unconstitutional by the Council of Grand Justices on the grounds that it deprives the Cabinet of the power to appoint officers as protected by the Constitution.
While the KMT believes the revised CEC proposal effectively resolves the problem of unconstitutionality, the DPP has deemed it unacceptable as it would still enable the pan-blues to secure a majority given that the NPSU normally sides with the pan-blue alliance.
Under the present system, CEC members are nominated by the premier and appointed by the president. No other conditions need to be met, except that the percentage of seats held by a single party must not exceed two-fifths and at least one non-party member must be included.
After a long-drawn-out battle with the KMT, the DPP has agreed with the conditions set for the selection of 12 candidates and that all 17 members must be confirmed by the legislature. Bottom line, however, the DPP wants the premier to retain his power to appoint the five non-party members.
And that's where the two camps have gotten stuck.
For the KMT, allowing the premier to appoint officers to the non-party posts would preclude the pan-blue camp from dominating the CEC.
Commenting on the deadlock, Shih Cheng-feng (
The CEC's current setup is a legacy of the old KMT regime, but it wasn't fraught with disputes as it is now, he said.
Shih attributed the conflict and difficulties as part of the nation's transition to democracy.
"The impartiality of the CEC did come into question under the DPP government. It's not as if we have never heard that some of its members are the government's `yes men' and have failed to fulfill their duties independently," he said.
An oft-cited example was the CEC's endorsement of President Chen Shui-bian's (
The pan-blue camp charged that the questions posed in the referendum -- ie, should China remove its missiles targeting Taiwan and should the Taiwanese government negotiate with China to foster cross-strait peace -- were nothing more than a means to manipulate the election and shore up support for Chen's re-election bid.
The experience prompted the KMT's move to alter the CEC's set-up to counter a DPP plan to hold a referendum on recovering the KMT's stolen assets during the presidential election next year.
As voter participation is critical in determining the success or failure of a referendum, it is wrong of the KMT to demand that the referendum and the election be held separately, Shih said.
However, he also acknowledged that the DPP has used "improper means" to slant the CEC in its favor.
The nature of the CEC is still "open to interpretation: It may be an executive branch, an institution under the legislature, or a quasi-judicial administration," he said.
"Under the circumstances, the KMT doesn't believe CEC mem-bers nominated by the DPP will be above partisanship and the DPP did take advantage of its powers of appointment. Basing the selection on each parties' electoral strength could be a solution to the contention," Shih added.
If the DPP were to accept the KMT's version, the long-stalled government budget for this fiscal year, which has been held hostage by the pan-blue pending review of the CEC bill, may finally be approved today.
Lin Shui-po (
"Passing the KMT's proposal might incapacitate the CEC, just like what had happened to the Referendum Review Committee," Lin said.
The committee, charged with examining and approving referendum proposals as well as establishing rules for carrying out referendums, was organized by the legislature according to the share of seats held by each political party.
The DPP has condemned the committee for sitting on its petition to call a referendum to force the KMT to return its stolen assets.
Not until the Cabinet's Appeals Review Committee ruled in favor of a complaint filed by the DPP accusing the Referendum Review Committee of idling did the party get the green light to continue its drive to hold a referendum.
"The Referendum Review Committee is not empowered to substantially examine any referendum petition. But its structure, which was drawn based on each party's electoral strength, allowed it to turn down petitions that it didn't like," Lin said.
While it's not hard to understand why the KMT wanted to include party representatives in the CEC, its proposal does risk paralyzing the institution's function, he said.
"You never know if the CEC might decline to promulgate an election's results just because the parties commanding the CEC lost, Lin said.
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