Opposition parties yesterday thwarted an urgent DPP attempt to amend the Public Officials Elections and Recall Law (公職人員選舉罷免法) to attack the problem of vote-buying within the DPP, on the grounds that the amendment would be unlikely to be completed in time to affect the DPP primaries on April 1.
Legislators turned down a request to hold a legislature sitting tomorrow to finish the ongoing legislative process for the amendment.
"We believe the DPP is sincere about the reform, but we regret the fact that it is already too late for this amendment," said Hsieh Chi-ta (謝啟大), convener of the New Party caucus in the legislature.
"All the votes [for sale] will have been bought. There will be no people to arrest after the law is passed," Hsieh added.
The amendment was proposed by a group of DPP legislators last week, following reports of vote-buying in the period leading up to the party primaries -- held to decide the party's nominees for the year-end legislative elections.
The legislature's Home and Nations Committee finished a preliminary review of the amendment on Monday, and it was the DPP's wish that the amendment could be passed, in light of the limited time available, before April 1.
The DPP negotiated with opposition caucuses to seek to rearrange the agenda for this week -- which had already been fixed a week before -- proposing that the legislature convene tomorrow to go through the second and final readings for the amendment.
However, according to leaders of the opposition caucuses participating in the negotiation, even if the amendment were to pass tomorrow, it would not take effect until March 22 at the earliest.
While it takes at least one day for the paperwork involved to be completed before a piece of legislation is sent to the president for signing, a law will only take effect three days after it has been signed.
As the amendment would be a non-retroactive one, there would be approximately one week for law-enforcement authorities to step in and start handling vote-buying allegations.
People First Party Legislator Chou Hsi-wei (
"Any prosecutions must be supported by substantial physical evidence. It would be impossible for prosecutors to start their crackdown before the amendment is passed," Chou said.
In addition, opposition lawmakers argued that the proposal put forth by the DPP is incomplete, and that it needs further consideration.
For example, under the DPP proposal, a candidate who buys his or her victory at a party primary would not have his candidacy nullified, although he or she would face imprisonment.
"The KMT will definitely support efforts against vote-buying and `black-gold,' but we hope the amendment is a comprehensive one," said KMT caucus whip Cheng Yung-chin (
The DPP said yesterday's development was a regrettable one.
DPP Legislator Trong Chai (
The KMT is set to hold primaries for the very first time on May 5.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat