The Central Election Commission yesterday proposed Jan. 14 as the date for the merged presidential and legislative elections.
“After meeting with representatives from local election commissions today [yesterday], the commission has decided that the date for the eighth legislative and the thirteenth presidential elections will be Jan. 14, 2012, from 8am to 4pm,” the commission said in a press release yesterday afternoon, two days after it decided to merge the elections.
“The decision will be finalized in the next commission meeting and forwarded to the Executive Yuan for reference,” it said.
The statement said Jan. 14 was selected because, as per the Election and Recall Act for Public Servants (公職人員選舉罷免法), the legislative election for the next legislature must be held prior to the swearing in of the next legislature on Feb. 1.
“According to a survey by the Council of Labor Affairs, the second and the fourth Saturdays are when most workers have the day off” and are available to cast their votes, the commission said.
Although most people have two-day weekends, some companies still choose to follow the old holiday schedule and employees working at those companies only have every other Saturday off.
The commission said that in earlier meetings with business leaders, the latter had expressed support for holding elections on the second or the fourth Saturday of the month.
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