The outgoing chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC) yesterday expressed concern whether new commission members would be able to maintain their impartiality and questioned the government’s motivation in appointing a new panel with the year-end elections just a month away.
Chang Cheng-hsiung (張政雄) made the remarks during the handover to his successor, Lai Hao-min (賴浩敏).
Along with Lai, 10 other commission members also took office yesterday.
All 11 CEC members nominated by the Cabinet passed the legislative review on Tuesday afternoon, and their appointment followed in the evening.
However, the outgoing chairman said he was worried that the commission might not hear opposing voices because three of its 11 members are affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), eight have no party affiliation and none represents the opposition.
“If the CEC is controlled by the party in power and the opposition is not represented, the impartiality of electoral affairs may be affected,” Chang said. “The opposition had never been absent in the CEC before.”
He also questioned the government's intention in appointing a new commission right before the local elections on Dec. 5.
Chang said the term of the outgoing commission members does not end until next June, and “based on the law, the Cabinet is to nominate new members three months before CEC members’ term expires, which would be next March.”
By doing so, the government was compromising the CEC's legitimacy and may give rise to doubts as to why the government is so eager to reorganize the nation's top electoral authority right before the elections, Chang said. He said he handed over the chairmanship only to show his respect for the system of government.
“Wu said that reappointing commission members is to make the CEC more trustworthy, but I think what he did is just the opposite,” Chang said, referring to Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義).
Despite Chang’s criticism, the new chairman said he expected his newly sworn-in colleagues to work independently and think beyond party interests.
“I hope that you [the new members] understand that resisting political pressure is very important and urge all influential political entities to stay out of the CEC's operation,” Lai said.
He said that rooting out election irregularities would be a priority for the CEC under his leadership.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
STRIKE: Some travel agencies in Taiwan said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group tours to the country were proceeding as planned A planned strike by airport personnel in South Korea has not affected group tours to the country from Taiwan, travel agencies said yesterday. They added that they were closely monitoring the situation. Personnel at 15 airports, including Seoul’s Incheon and Gimpo airports, are to go on strike. They announced at a news conference on Tuesday that the strike would begin on Friday next week and continue until the Mid-Autumn Festival next month. Some travel agencies in Taiwan, including Cola Tour, Lion Travel, SET Tour and ezTravel, said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
RSS