The Executive Yuan yesterday said its appointment of new directors to the Central Election Commission was legal, following criticism that the appointment was made without being discussed in a formal Cabinet meeting.
The Executive Yuan on Wednesday submitted a request to the Legislative Yuan to appoint National Central University law professor Chen In-chin (陳英鈐) and Taichung Legal Affairs Bureau Director Chen Chao-chien (陳朝建) as the commission’s new chairman and vice chairman respectively.
The request was submitted three months before the incumbent chairman’s and vice chairman’s terms end on Nov. 3. However, the request was met with criticism as it was submitted to the legislature without being discussed in a Cabinet meeting, raising concerns that the Cabinet was acting outside the law.
According to the Rules of Procedure of the Executive Yuan (行政院會議議事規則), Cabinet decisions that require legislative approval must first be passed in an Executive Yuan meeting before being submitted to the Legislative Yuan.
Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said that only draft laws, budget proposals and international agreements have to be passed in Cabinet meetings before submission; the rule does not apply to the appointment of officials to independent government agencies.
“It has been a long-time practice that the appointment of independent agency officials, such as those of the National Communications Commission, the Fair Trade Commission and the Central Election Commission, does not have to be discussed in Executive Yuan meetings,” Hsu said.
Previously, appointments to the agencies were approved by the premier without being deliberated in a Cabinet meeting, he said.
“The media might ask if we could discuss and approve the appointments in a meeting. We certainly can, but it is not legally required,” he said.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has criticized the appointment of Chen In-chin for his perceived pro-Democratic Progressive Party bent, saying that this might affect a planned restructuring of the nation’s electoral districts.
The electoral districts are rezoned every 10 years according to population changes, and according to the commission’s estimates, Kaohsiung and Pingtung might each lose a legislative seat, while Tainan and Hsinchu would each gain one.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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