The New Power Party (NPP) yesterday urged the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee to carefully review the Sports Administration’s report on its handling of sports associations that allegedly used proxy members to manipulate board elections.
As part of the government’s plan to promote sports reform, the Legislative Yuan in August last year passed amendments to the National Sports Act (國民體育法), which allowed members of the public to join sports associations and required the associations to hold board elections by March 20 this year.
Following the amendment, several sports associations, including the Chinese Taipei Swimming Association and the Chinese Taipei Volleyball Association, allegedly used proxy members to rig their board elections.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
Many of the members were reportedly registered at the same address had the same e-mail address.
In January, legislators across party lines unanimously passed a resolution demanding that the agency take specific steps to investigate the allegations and improve the transparency of sports associations, NPP caucus convener Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said at a news conference at the caucus’ office in Taipei.
The legislature also froze 30 percent of the agency’s budget, which is only to be reallocated if the Education and Culture Committee approves of its report on its handling of the alleged manipulation of the board elections, he said.
However, it was not until Tuesday that the committee suddenly decided to schedule the report for today, which is close to the end of the legislative session, he said.
“With the review of the report scheduled in the same meeting where there are a dozen other cases to be discussed, will the committee be able to properly do its job? I worry the agency will provide a very vague report and that the committee will grant the budget anyway,” he said.
In the resolution passed in January, legislators demanded that the agency provide a list of members who had allegedly been used to manipulate elections to law enforcement, but so far it has not done so, said former swimmer and NPP member Tang Sheng-chieh (唐聖捷), who is to run for a seat in the New Taipei City Council in the Nov. 24 elections.
The resolution also asked the agency to allow third parties to participate in the organization of the elections, but it only allowed third parties to oversee the polling process, he said.
In the resolution, the agency was also asked to suspend the elections of associations that have allegedly attempted to rig the vote, but it did not do that, he added.
Since the elections, there have been countless instances of corruption in sports associations, but the agency has done little to address those problems, said sports reform group Fair Game! Taiwan! (體育改革聯會) spokesman Angelo Chang (張祐銓), who is also an NPP New Taipei City councilor candidate.
The agency should mete out punishments when sports associations are found to have broken the law, as stipulated in Article 43 of the National Sports Act, he said.
The Education and Culture Committee must maintain a consistent standard and be prudent when determining whether to reinstate the agency’s budget, he said.
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