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Ma criticizes CEC investigation

Chinese Nationalist Party presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday expressed disappointment at the Central Election Commission's (CEC) request that the two presidential candidates provide information about any foreign permanent residency cards they own.

"The CEC is supposed to be an impartial and professional organization, but it has lost these two characteristics," Ma said during a visit to family members of late political figure Lin Hsien-tang (林獻堂) in Taichung County.

The CEC has asked for details of foreign permanent residency as part of the an investigation into whether either candidate holds foreign citizenship.

Ma made the remarks when asked about an official notice the commission sent to him and Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) on Saturday as the CEC launched its probe.

The CEC announced the investigation following Hsieh's accusation that Ma holds a valid US green card.

Ma recently admitted that he had applied for and was granted permanent residency while studying in the US, but said that his green card was later invalidated when he began applying for visitors visas for his trips to the US 20 years ago.

Any holder of a foreign citizenship is ineligible to run for president under the President and Vice President Election and Recall Law (總統副總統選舉罷免法).

Although CEC Chairman Chang Cheng-hsiung (張政雄) said on Friday that US green cards would not be part of the investigation, the formal notice sent to the candidates requested information about any non-Taiwanese passports, permanent residency cards issued by other countries, or US Social Security cards they may possess.

The CEC asked Ma and Hsieh to submit all foreign residency or passport numbers they have or have had.

The form also asks for their Taiwanese passport numbers, any English names they have used and Taiwanese household registration information.

CEC Secretary-General Teng Tien-yu (鄧天祐) said on Saturday night that the commission sought the information from the candidates in order to facilitate the probe.

Ma said yesterday that he would cooperate with the investigation and provide what information he could, but added that he was "disappointed" that the CEC would ask for these details.

Ma's campaign office spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said the commission's action could be seen as a move to manipulate the green card issue to help Hsieh in the election.

"Some of the questions [in the document] were the same as political issues Hsieh's campaign has been manipulating recently and they had nothing to do with the commission's investigation into whether the presidential candidates have double citizenship," Lo said.
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