Lawmakers across party lines yesterday agreed to an amendment to the Election and Recall Law of Civil Servants (
The law currently stipulates that a ballot recount can be carried out when the difference between the winning and losing candidates is less than one percent. Any such recount must first be proposed by the Central Election Commission (CEC), authorized by the Cabinet and carried out by the court.
Under the new amendment, which was discussed at the legislature yesterday, the court may immediately carry out a recount.
"This idea was proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party legislative caucus. Most of my fellow lawmakers agreed that it may not be fair and logical if a recount is proposed by an administrative office like the CEC. Instead, it shall be proposed and carried out by the courts," Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
The discussions and review of the amendment were not finished. They will continue today at 3:30pm.
Wang said that issues to be discussed today include the process and regulations for hiring managers for ballot stations and Election Committee members.
The Election Committee is established by the CEC to oversee the smooth administration of each major election
Lawmakers will also decide whether to approve a new rule under which the CEC would choose committee members.
They will also discuss whether video footage should be available from every ballot booth to cut down on potential election fraud.
While the current law states that those who carry cameras or cellphones with camera functions to ballot stations can be sentenced to up to five years in prison, pan-green lawmakers suggested that it should be amended because people who carry these items may not necessarily be involved in fraud.
Seven of the 17 NT$10 million (US$311,604) winning receipts from the November-December uniform invoice lottery remain unclaimed as of today, the Ministry of Finance said, urging winners to redeem their prizes by May 5. The reminder comes ahead of the release of the winning numbers for the January-February lottery tomorrow. Among the unclaimed receipts was one for a NT$173 phone bill in Keelung, while others were for a NT$5,913 purchase at Costco in Taipei's Neihu District (內湖), a NT$49 purchase at a FamilyMart in New Taipei City's Tamsui District (淡水), and a NT$500 purchase at a tea shop in New Taipei City's
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
The New Taipei Metro's Sanyin Line and the eastern extension of the Taipei Metro's Tamsui-Xinyi Line (Red Line) are scheduled to begin operations in June, the National Development Council said today. The Red Line, which terminates at Xiangshan Station, would be connected by the 1.4km extension to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, while the Sanyin Line would link New Taipei City's Tucheng and Yingge stations via Sanxia District (三峽). The council gave the updates at a council meeting reviewing progress on public construction projects for this year. Taiwan's annual public infrastructure budget would remain at NT$800 billion (US$25.08 billion), with NT$97.3
Deliveries of delayed F-16V jets are expected to begin in September, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said today, after senior defense officials visited the US last week. The US in 2019 approved a US$8 billion sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 jets to Taiwan, a deal that would take the nation’s F-16 fleet to more than 200 jets, but the project has been hit by issues including software problems. Koo appeared today before a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which is discussing different versions of the special defense budget this week. The committee is questioning officials today,
RSS