Central Election Commission Chair-man Huang Shih-cheng (黃石城) reiterated yesterday that Taiwan may draw on South Korea's election experience to allow the commission to become a more neutral, independent electoral organization.
"We can use South Korea's electoral organization as a good example of an independent organization, which holds an excellent public reputation and was able to impeach the president of the country," Huang said at the Changhwa County Election Commission.
Huang said that an electoral organization should be independent and have an outstanding record of and good reputation for impartiality.
Huang has traveled around the country since the presidential election to visit city and county election commissions, to check on the ballots sealed after the election and lists of election workers and to show appreciation to all election workers for their efforts on March 20.
The commission is under the jurisdiction of the Executive Yuan and consists of 16 commissioners, not including the chairman. The commission is designed as a permanent organization that is in charge of election-related affairs.
According to rules governing the commission, commissioners from a single political party may not constitute more than two-fifths of the membership.
Since the election, the commission has been a center of political and public attention due to the large number of ballots that were declared invalid, which has led to the pan-blue camp's call for an administrative recount. Huang has said that only with a judicial order could an administrative recount take place. After the commission's announcement of the winner of the election on Friday, four commissioners -- Lee Tzu-yuan (
It is believed by some that these resignations were due to the pressure which the commission had been put under during the election.
Before the election, Huang had made approving comments about South Korea's electoral organization.
"In South Korea, the electoral organization is above the presidential level. By simply asking voters to cast their ballots for his political party, President Roh Moo-hyun was alleged to have violated the election law by the country's electoral organization. It was an example of how independent and impartial an electoral organization can be," Huang said in a television interview prior to the March 20 election.
Huang stated that Taiwan's election commission was nominated by the Executive Yuan and appointed by the president and political appointees can hardly remain neutral during elections.
"On the other hand, during elections in South Korea, the president and heads of all government offices have to take a neutral stance, and are barred from campaigning for their political parties. However, in Taiwan, never has any head of state remained neutral during any election, let alone urged politically appointed officials to do the same," Huang said.
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
Labor rights groups yesterday called on the Ministry of Labor to protect migrant workers in Taiwan’s fishing industry, days after CNN reported alleged far-ranging abuses in the sector, including deaths and forced work. The ministry must enforce domestic labor protection laws on Taiwan-owned deep-sea fishing vessels, the Coalition for Human Rights for Migrant Fishers told a news conference outside the ministry in Taipei after presenting a petition to officials. CNN on Sunday reported that Taiwanese seafood giant FCF Co, the owners of the US-based Bumble Bee Foods, committed human rights abuses against migrant fishers, citing Indonesian migrant fishers. The alleged abuses included denying
RSS