Eliminating representatives’ right to vote anonymously could expose them to criminal threats, academics and legislators said yesterday at a Legislative Yuan Internal Administration Committee public hearing, as the chamber’s first-ever Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) majority considers wide-ranging electoral and political reforms.
“When I saw the proposed changes, I immediately thought of [former Pingtung County Council Speaker] Cheng Tai-chi (鄭太吉) — if councilors had been forced to register their votes then, he would have been able to take out whoever he wanted,” said Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) a professor at Aletheia University and member of the Taiwan Association of University Professors’ board of directors, a prominent “deep green” advocacy group.
Cheng — who was executed in 2000 for the murder of a fellow gangster committed while he was still Pingtung County Council speaker — is one of the nation’s notorious examples of criminal involvement in politics, with numerous local councilors and some national legislators allegedly boasting connections with the underworld.
“Taiwan is still a society that revolves around favors, so some Western theory is impractical here,” Chen said. “Especially in the central and southern regions, representatives need the protection of anonymous voting to give them the courage to exercise their rights.”
Voting in local and national assemblies has traditionally been secret, despite occasional attempts of political parties’ to require their legislators to “flash” ballots — to show their ballots so that their choice be seen.
Legislation to require city and county councilors to register their votes in speakership elections has been proposed following the failure of the DPP to secure the Tainan city council speakership despite winning a majority of seats in the 2014 local elections, with Tainan City Council Speaker Lee Chuan-chiao (李全教) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) allegedly engaging in vote-buying to hold onto his post.
“Violence and bribery should be stopped via vigorous investigation — not by changing how we vote,” KMT Legislator John Wu (吳志揚) said. “Gangsters want you to register your vote to them so that they have clear proof if you go against their wishes, enabling them to threaten your life and property.”
Councilors and legislators possess the same constitutional right to a “secret ballot” as ordinary voters, he said, adding that the protection also keeps them from being controlled by political parties.
However, National Taipei University department of public administration and policy professor Chen Yaw-shyang (陳耀祥) said that because councilors and legislators are representatives — not free agents — constitutional “secret ballot” rights do not apply.
“Every councilor and representative has to take responsibility for his vote and let the people know how he decided, because they act as agents in exercising their legislative authority,” he said, adding that legislators also have obligations to the party which nominated them.
National Chin-Yi Institute of Technology professor Chou Tsung-hsein (周宗憲) said registered voting would have the advantage of forcing representatives to listen more closely to their constituents and party.
“If public opinion and party discipline conflict, councilors have to balance out for themselves what the most appropriate choice is, but we cannot say that they should have the ‘secret ballot’ just because they might be subject to party discipline,” he said.
The city and council speakership election reforms have passed an initial review by the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee and now await the results of further cross-caucus negotiations.
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