Cabinet officials should observe certain principles when they canvass votes or stump for candidates during the upcoming legislative by-elections, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said yesterday.
Wu said that while he did not oppose ministerial-level officials canvassing votes for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidates running in the by-elections for four legislative seats on Feb. 27, vote-soliciting initiatives should not be in violation of party or government regulations.
He said canvassing must be carried out under the principle that a minister will not compromise his or her position during the activity, that no national resources or budgets be used for particular candidates and that officials must be make careful use of their language.
The premier also said that justice and education ministers, as well as the director-general of the National Police Agency, were unsuitable for appearances at such functions.
While civil servants have the right to express verbal support for candidates when they are off-duty, such stumping must not be “too much,” Wu said.
The KMT has fielded Apollo Chen (陳學聖), Cheng Yung-tang (鄭永堂), Lin Te-jui (林德瑞) and Wang Ting-sheng (王廷升) as candidates in the Feb. 27 legislative by-elections for Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Chiayi and Hualien counties respectively.
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