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.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do