About 100 people yesterday took part in an open-air public forum outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei to discuss proposals on electoral reforms for the legislature, amid mounting criticism over the current electoral system.
Led by Taiwan Democracy Watch, the organizers invited participants to brainstorm possible electoral reforms, saying that current legislative institutions have failed to adequately reflect diverse views and groups in society.
“We must tackle this question: Is our democracy simply the rule of a majority, or should it convey diversity?” human rights lawyer Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said during introductory comments at the forum.
One of the major issues discussed at the forum was a perceived discrepancy between the percentage of votes a party receives and the number of seats it wins.
As an example, Lai cited the 2008 legislative elections, in which the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) garnered three-quarters of legislative seats, despite only receiving around 53 percent of the popular vote.
Lai said that the discrepancy was due to 70 percent of the seats in the legislature being derived from single-member constituencies, which he described as a “winner take all” system that fails to represent votes proportionally.
He said that legislators-at-large — which are allocated according to proportional representation based on predetermined party-nominated lists — should be increased to address the problem.
Other participants called for the need to lower the 5 percent threshold for legislature-at-large seats, as smaller parties are rarely able to attain 5 percent of the popular vote.
Two legislators have submitted proposals for legislative electoral reform — the KMT’s Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟) and the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Lee Ying-yuan (李應元).
Both proposals suggest an increase in the total amount of legislators. While the DPP version adds 43 additional legislator-at-large seats, the KMT version proposes a mix of 30 additional legislators-at-large and seven new district legislators.
The two proposals also differ in that the KMT supports the continued use of a parallel voting system, while the DPP aims to adopt a German-influenced mixed-member proportional representational system, in which the total amount of seats — the sum of district seats and legislator-at-large seats — is determined by the proportion of party votes.
The event was part of a series of grassroots forums launched by the Civic Alliance to Promote Constitutional Reform, a group advocating amendments to the Constitution by inviting increased public participation.
Given that legislative electoral regulations are written in the Constitution, an amendment would be required to enact any proposed reforms.
By law, amendments to the Constitution need to be ratified by a popular referendum, which must be announced six months prior. Ongoing discussions have suggested that a referendum be held concurrently with the presidential and legislative elections in January next year.
FAST TRACK? Chinese spouses must renounce their Chinese citizenship and pledge allegiance to Taiwan to gain citizenship, some demonstrators said Opponents and supporters of a bill that would allow Chinese spouses to obtain Taiwanese citizenship in four years instead of six staged protests near the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday morning. Those who oppose the bill proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) demanded that Chinese spouses be granted citizenship only after renouncing their Chinese citizenship, passing a citizenship test and pledging allegiance to Taiwan. The demonstrators, who were protesting at a side entrance to the Legislative Yuan on Jinan Road, were mostly members of the Taiwan Association of University Professors and other organizations advocating Taiwanese independence. Supporters of the bill, led
SILENT MAJORITY: Only 1 percent of Chinese rejected all options but war to annex Taiwan, while one-third viewed war as unacceptable, a university study showed Many Chinese are more concerned with developments inside their country than with seeking unification with Taiwan, al-Jazeera reported on Friday. Although China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to annex it, by force if necessary, 23-year-old Chinese Shao Hongtian was quoted by al-Jazeera as saying that “hostilities are not the way to bring China and Taiwan together.” “I want unification to happen peacefully,” Shao said. Al-Jazeera said it changed Shao’s name to respect his wish for anonymity. If peaceful unification is not possible, Shao said he would prefer “things to remain as they are,” adding that many of his friends feel
Taiwan has “absolute air superiority” over China in its own airspace, Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) told a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Monday, amid concern over whether Taipei could defend itself against a military incursion by Beijing. Po made the remarks in response to a question from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) on whether Taiwan would have partial or complete air superiority if Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warplanes were to enter Taiwan’s airspace. Po, a retired pilot, said that the Taiwanese military has “absolute air superiority” over PLA
A shipment of basil pesto imported by Costco Wholesale Taiwan from the US in the middle of last month was intercepted at the border after testing positive for excessive pesticide residue, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. Samples taken from a shipment of the Kirkland Signature brand of basil pesto imported by Costco contained 0.1 milligrams per kilogram of ethylene oxide, exceeding the non-detectable limit. Ethylene oxide is a carcinogenic substance that can be used as a pesticide. The 674kg shipment of basil pesto would either be destroyed or returned to its country of origin, as is the procedure for all