A Kaohsiung City councilor said on Saturday that the city council should be authorized to investigate the nationality status of all it members before they take office, one day after the Central Election Commission (CEC) revoked Huang Shao-ting’s (黃紹庭) election because he held dual nationality.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) City Councilor Hsiao Yung-ta (蕭永達) told a press conference he would propose an amendment to the Organic and Autonomous Act of the Kaohsiung City Council (高雄市議會組織自治條例) to require that newly elected councilors subject themselves to a council investigation before they are sworn in.
Hsiao said his proposed amendment, dubbed the “Huang Shao-ting Article,” would protect the city council’s reputation.
The commission announced on Friday that it had annulled Huang’s election because he was found to hold dual citizenship after being sworn in as a councilor.
“A letter from the US [Department of State] to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Huang only lost his US citizenship on June 13, 2008. The letter also stated that being sworn in to public office in another country does not constitute a criterion for a US citizen to lose his or her citizenship,” the commission said in a statement.
The Nationality Act (國籍法) bans government officials from holding foreign citizenship and requires that those who do renounce it before assuming office.
Huang, a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), had been sworn in as a Kaohsiung City councilor on Dec. 25, 2005.
Huang said he was shocked to learn of the commission’s move.
Law enforcement authorities received reports last October that Huang held both Republic of China citizenship and US citizenship and launched an investigation.
In testimony before the commission, Huang said he obtained US citizenship when he lived and worked in the US, but that he had filed an application to renounce his US citizenship on Dec. 20, 2005, five days before he was sworn in as a member of the Kaohsiung City Council.
The council said it stopped paying Huang’s councilor salary following the commission’s announcement, but had not decided on whether to try to recover the money paid Huang and his assistants over the past three years.
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