Tue, Mar 22, 2016 page8

• CEC needs to serve the nation, not foster feuds

  • By Chang Kuo-tsai 張國財
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  On March 15, the organizers of last year’s Appendectomy Project (割闌尾計畫), a campaign to recall then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元), were fined NT$600,000 by the Taipei City Election Commission. On the surface, the Central Election Commission (CEC) does not seem to have been directly involved in the decision, but in reality it had much to do with it.

  CEC Chairman Liu Yi-chou (劉義周) said during a legislative question-and-answer session that “the law banning campaigns to recall legislators is outdated and should be abolished,” and that he thinks “the case should not lead to any fines.”

  Meanwhile, the commission turned down the request of the Taipei City Election Commission for a constitutional interpretation to resolve the controversy. The CEC knows what should be done, yet has done nothing. How can anyone not think its actions dubious?

  Liu also said that whether the Appendectomy Project would be fined depended on the Taipei City Election Commission, adding that it would not intervene unless the commission clearly broke the law.

  Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) posted an acrostic poem online promoting the Appendectomy Project — with the first character of each line forming the phrase “more than half of the district must vote for the recall for it to pass.”

  Ko also “stopped by” a recall campaign the night before the vote. It would be underestimating Ko’s popularity and influence to assume that his actions did not help to promote the recall bid at all. Furthermore, newly elected legislator and New Power Party Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) has repeatedly admitted his direct involvement in the recall campaign.

  That the Taipei City Election Commission has fined many participants of the Appendectomy Project, but not Ko and Huang, who both openly supported the project, should raise questions about whether the commission “clearly broke the law.” This is something Liu needs to explain.

  In addition, the CEC insisted on combining the presidential and legislative elections, which has resulted in a four-month-long presidential transition period — the longest of all democratic nations in the world. What did the commission hope to achieve by this? The date of the election was also carefully selected to coincide with universities’ final exam day. Was this because the commission hoped to encourage students to vote — or to prevent them?

  The CEC should be serving the interests of the nation and should avoid feuds between political parties. The discord between President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and then-legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), was, in September 2013, at most an internal KMT matter. On Sept. 11 at 11:30am that year, the KMT’s Central Evaluation and Disciplinary Committee decided to revoke Wang’s membership.

  The official document stating the decision was then sent to the CEC. The commission, without holding a meeting, quickly e-mailed the received document, along with proof that Wang was no longer qualified to be a legislator, to the legislature’s official e-mail address. The entire process — from the time the KMT’s Central Evaluation and Disciplinary Committee began its meeting to the time the CEC finished its procedures — took only nine hours. Never before had the CEC done anything with such efficiency.

  By appearing to favor or looking after a particular political party, the CEC can only ruin its own reputation.

  Chang Kuo-tsai is a retired professor from National Hsinchu University of Education and former deputy secretary-general of the Taiwan Association of University Professors.

  Translated by Yu-an Tu
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