The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday urged Premier William Lai (賴清德) to rescind the Cabinet’s nominations for the Central Election Commission (CEC) to ensure the agency’s neutrality, citing the nominees’ “green background.”
As members of the nation’s statutory agency responsible for managing local and national elections, they should be politically neutral to ensure that elections are fair, just and independent of political influence, KMT spokesman Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said.
“However, most of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration’s six nominees have held positions either in the party or its affiliated organizations. This runs counter to the principle of neutrality to which past commission nominees have usually conformed,” Hung told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
The news conference coincided with a meeting of the legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee, which was convened to review for the second time the credentials of the nominees, who are expected to succeed six commission members whose four-year terms expired on Friday.
With a legislative majority, DPP lawmakers yesterday voted to refer the nominations to a plenary session for a vote without cross-party negotiations. They are expected to be approved on Friday or Tuesday next week at the earliest.
Under the Organic Act of the Central Election Commission (中央選舉委員會組織法), the premier is entitled to nominate the commission’s chairperson, vice chairperson and members three months before the incumbent’s tenure is to expire, pending legislative approval.
It also stipulates that no more than one-third of the commission’s members, who can number between nine and 11 people, can belong to the same party.
The DPP nominated National Central University law professor Chen In-chin (陳英鈐) as chairman and Taichung Legal Affairs Bureau Director Chen Chao-chien (陳朝建) as vice chairman. The two have also been nominated as commission members.
National Taipei University of Education professor Chou Chih-hung (周志宏), National Chengchi University’s Election Study Center director Tsai Chia-hung (蔡佳泓), Chinese Culture University Department of Law director Hsu Hui-feng (許惠峰) and Soochow University political science associate professor Lin Chiung-chu (林瓊珠) were also nominated as commission members.
All the nominees are independent except for Hsu, who is a member of the DPP.
However, Chen In-chin previously served as a member of the DPP’s Clean Government Committee, while Chen Chao-chien — who during last year’s presidential campaign spoke out in support of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) — serves in the administration of DPP Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), Hung said.
In addition, Lin had worked for the DPP’s polling center and Chou has served as a member of the DPP’s arbitration committee, Hung added.
“Lai should rescind this nomination list and put forward a new one to ensure the commission’s neutrality,” he said.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the legislative committee meeting yesterday, Chen In-chin said that most nominees are professors with a simple and transparent background.
“Besides, the Organic Law of the Central Election Commission does not prohibit its members from being party members and only sets a one-third threshold, which is already stricter than other independent commissions,” he said.
Additional reporting by CNA
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai