Su rejects draft CEC bill based on number of seats

Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said yesterday that he can't accept the proposal that the Central Election Commission (CEC) be made up of of members recommended by various political parties in proportion to their seats in the Legislative Yuan.

Su the remarks while fielding questions at the legislature, one day after a draft Organic Law of the Central Election Commission (中央選舉委員會組織法) proposed by the opposition was again stalled in the legislature.

At stake is the composition of the next commission. Under current regulations, the premier would nominate between 11 and 19 CEC members for appointment by the president for a three-year term. The number of members affiliated to any single party cannot exceed two-fifths of the total.

The opposition, believing that the make-up of the current CEC is tilted toward the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), has proposed that the selection process be modeled on the formation of the National Communications Commission (NCC), which largely followed the proportions of the political parties in the legislature.

According to the opposition's draft proposal for a 17-member CEC, six members would be drawn from the "pan-green camp" led by the DPP, six from the pan-blue alliance composed of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the People First Party, and the remaining five seats would be allocated through negotiations between the various political parties.

"I don't think that the formation of the CEC should be modeled on the NCC," Su said.

He said that no one individual party should dominate the CEC. Further, the Constitution stipulates a division of power in the governmental system, so any attempt by the pan-blue alliance -- which enjoys a slim majority in the legislature -- to influence the make-up of the CEC would be unconstitutional as well as an encroachment on the executive's powers by the legislature.

He expressed hope that the opposition would not insist on tying the passage of the CEC's Organic Law to the central government's annual budget for this year, which should have been passed by last November.