Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) yesterday did not deny reports of a conflict with KMT caucus whip Lin Yi-shih (林益世) over the slow progress of a bill that would help cities and counties merge into special municipalities.
Wu declined to comment on a report by the Chinese-language China Times yesterday that he had slammed the door in Lin's face during a caucus meeting to express his dissatisfaction with the progress of the proposed amendment to the Local Government Act (地方制度法).
However, Wu, the head of the legislature's Internal Administration Commitee, said Lin should have worked harder to push the proposed amendment as it was part of President Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) campaign promise to allow Taichung city and county to merge.
“If the bill fails to clear the legislative floor by April 20, it will be impossible for any city or county to be merged [before the year-end city and county chief elections]. The president would then be accused of breaking his promise,” Wu said.
Central Election Commission Chairman Chang Cheng-hsiung (張政雄) said on Wednesday last week that there could be problems if the legislature failed to pass the amendment by April 20.
In accordance with the Political Donation Act (政治獻金法), any aspirant eyeing the year-end city and county chief elections could begin accepting political donations from April 20, Chang said.
Chang said if a city and county completed their merger after the elections at the end of this year, the commission would be forced to hold another election at the end of next year for the chief of the new special municipality, while the newly elected chiefs of the city and county would only be able to serve for a year instead of the full four-year term.
“That would be unreasonable,” Chang said.
When approached for comment, Lin said the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was responsible for the bill's slow progress.
“I'm eager to have the bill passed as soon as possible. However, the DPP has said it would never support the bill unless the legislature also passes the administrative zoning act (行政區劃法) and an amendment to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法),” Lin said, adding that he would continue to communicate with the DPP caucus on the matter.
In response, DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) told a press conference that the party supported prioritizing a legislative review of the amendments to the Local Government Act next month that would also allow Kaohsiung city and county to merge next year.
Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) said that 59 percent of Kaohsiung city and county residents supported the merger, as the merger would make the biggest city in the south more competitive.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY RICH CHANG
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