Public opinion should be the main consideration in a proposal to combine the next legislative and presidential elections, a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator said yesterday.
“If the public supports the combination of the two elections, then we should push for it. If the public does not support the idea, then it should be scrapped,” KMT party whip Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said.
He said that while the KMT legislative caucus respected the decision of the Central Election Commission, the party should take a stance on the issue.
“The legislative caucus will propose at a KMT Central Standing Committee meeting on Wednesday that public opinion polls on the issue be held as soon as possible,” Hsieh said.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) should also hold public opinion polls so that there can be debate on the issue, he said.
The commission said earlier this month that it would do its best to decide by the end of next month whether to combine the next legislative and presidential elections.
Under the existing rules, the next presidential poll is due in March next year and the legislative election in December this year or January next year.
The idea of combining the two elections has been considered for a long time. Proponents say it would save resources, while skeptics have expressed concern over the potentially long transition period between the election and the presidential inauguration date in May.
Meanwhile, the DPP legislative caucus said yesterday that it was the first time the KMT caucus had proposed combining the two polls.
DPP whips Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) and Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) urged the KMT to state clearly its reasons for supporting the idea.
DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yee (李俊毅) said that KMT lawmakers were in a rush to have the elections combined because both the KMT and DPP had entered their legislative primaries.
“Of course, the grassroots voters in southern Taiwan would welcome a merger of the two elections, but such a move should not be pushed purely for political gain. It should be instituted through legal revisions,” Lee said.
The Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) reported yesterday that KMT officials in southern Taiwan were worried that the party could lose some of its eight legislative seats in areas south of Chiayi if the two elections were combined.
KMT officials familiar with the political environment in southern Taiwan said a merger would be to the KMT’s advantage in the north, but not in the south, the story said.
On the other hand, the DPP would gain ground in central and southern Taiwan as a result of a merger, the KMT officials were quoted by the paper as saying.
In a worst-case scenario, the KMT could be left with one or two legislative seats in the regions south of Chiayi and lose two seats each in Taipei and New Taipei cities, the KMT officials said.
The 113-seat legislature has 73 regional lawmakers, six Aboriginal legislators and 34 at-large and overseas legislators.
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