Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday said the Executive Yuan is not taking sides in arguments between the Central Election Commission (CEC) and some Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers over a district demarcation proposal drafted by the CEC that the latter said might cost the party a seat in the next legislative term.
Saying that the demarcation of constituency boundaries was “a matter of law” and that “the CEC was entitled to review constituencies independently within the framework of laws,” Wu said the executive branch neither supported nor opposed the CEC’s proposal.
Wu made the remarks yesterday in response to a claim made by KMT caucus whip Lin Yi-shih (林益世) that even the Executive Yuan supported the move initiated by some KMT lawmakers and the Non-Partisan Solidarity Union (NPSU) to revive the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), hence overriding the CEC’s proposal. Lin on Friday said the CEC proposal “made trouble” and added that the Executive Yuan did not support it.
Under the CEC’s proposal, the number of districts in Greater Kaohsiung — a municipality to be formed through the merger of Kaohsiung City and Kaohsiung County after Dec. 25 — will have one less seat than the current seventh legislative term, due to end in 2012. The number of seats in Greater Tainan — a municipality to be upgraded through the merger of Tainan City and Tainan County after Dec. 25 — meanwhile, would see a one-seat increase in the next legislative term, according to the CEC proposal.
It was believed that the decrease in the number of seats in Greater Kaohsiung, which would make it necessary to redraw constituency boundaries in the single-member district election system, could reduce KMT Legislator Lee Fu-hsing’s (李復興) chances of being re-elected.
Lee previously initiated an amendment to the Public Officials Election and Recall Act, which stipulated that the demarcation of constituency boundaries in the seventh legislative term be applied to next year’s election and that the CEC could only review constituency boundaries every 10 years.
Lee’s proposed amendment did not pass the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee.
Chung Shao-ho (鍾紹和), a KMT lawmaker from Kaohsiung County, and NPSU lawmakers recently introduced another amendment to the law that suggested the demarcation of the seventh term be applied to the next term and that the CEC could only make constituency boundary reviews every 12 years.
On Friday, the proposed amendment was referred by the plenary session directly to the second reading, which would speed up the pace of legislation.
The Democratic Progressive Party caucus has voiced its opposition to the proposed amendment, saying it might be in violation of the Constitution.
The CEC is empowered by the Constitution and other laws to review boundaries on a regular basis in view of population changes in constituencies, DPP Legislator William Lai (賴清德) said.
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