The adoption of an absentee-ballot system continued to be a bone of contention between the pan-green and pan-blue camps as pundits from both sides could not agree on the issue at a roundtable held at the Central Election Commission (CEC) yesterday.
While the pan-blues argued that the implementation of an absentee-ballot system would ensure the right to vote for all Taiwanese nationals, including those living overseas, the pan-greens said the system must not be launched haphazardly, especially as Beijing could easily intercept correspondence between Taiwan and China.
“Taiwan must install an absentee ballot system to make sure all Taiwanese citizens can vote and we should adopt the method that is least controversial,” said Huang Chong-hsian (黃重憲), head of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Department of Organization and Management.
Pundits have suggested several methods, including mail-in ballot, setting up a special voting booth for those who cannot travel to their household-registered districts to vote, early voting and voting by proxy.
Democratic Progressive Party representative Liu Chien-hsin (劉建忻), however, said that given Taiwan’s unique status, not many countries would be able or willing to support its overseas absentee-voting system.
Given China’s hostility toward Taiwan, Beijing might try to sabotage the election by intercepting mail sent by China-based Taiwanese, thus comprising the integrity of the election, he said.
Hsieh Hsiang-ching (謝相慶), a Shih Hsin University who specializes on the electoral system, supported an absentee-ballot system, but cautioned about possible sabotage from Beijing.
National Taiwan University professor Wang Yeh-li (王業立) said implementing an absentee-ballot would not be possible in the near term because the CEC lacked credibility in the public’s eye.
Both professors also advocated an overhaul of rules for campaign ads and media exposures.
“Too much air time was given to the elections in the past. Even regular news sometimes became a quasi-campaign aid when the station focused on a particular candidate,” Wang said, adding that minimizing the frequency of campaign ads could also lighten up candidates’ financial expenses.
CEC spokesman Teng Tien-you (鄧天祐) shot down the suggestion of using the county or municipal election next year as a “test” to assess the plausibility of an absentee-ballot system, saying any changes to the electoral system requires a constitutional amendment and there was no time to push the amendment through before next year’s race.
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