Wed, Dec 26, 2007 page3

• KMT lawmakers push for boycott of referendums

  • By Flora Wang / STAFF REPORTER, WITH STAFF WRITE
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  A group of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators has launched a campaign to boycott all referendums to be held next year, KMT Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) said yesterday.

  Hung said she recently organized a survey covering 810 people aged 20 and above which showed that more than 70 percent of respondents felt uneasy about the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government's plan to hold referendums during the legislative and presidential elections.

  The survey also showed that most respondents did not want to collect their referendum ballots, she said.

  "[The survey showed that] people are in great fear because the government has disregarded the law. We've therefore launched a campaign to boycott the referendums in line with public expectations so that the legislative and presidential elections can be held smoothly," she said.

  Asked if the campaign meant she disagreed with the two referendums initiated by the KMT, Hung merely said that the goals of her party's two referendums could also be achieved through legislation. She did not elaborate.

  The KMT has initiated a referendum on fighting government corruption to counter the DPP-initiated referendum on retrieving the KMT's stolen assets. The KMT has also proposed a referendum on rejoining the UN under the country's official title, the Republic of China, to counter the DPP's referendum on applying for UN membership under the name Taiwan.

  Meanwhile, KMT caucus whip Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) yesterday vowed to sue the Central Election Commission (CEC) for malfeasance, claiming the DPP government had become an "autocratic government that would resort to anything in order to reach its goals."

  Tseng said the Cabinet's "threat" to replace local election commissioners was similar to measures imposed during the martial law period, adding that the CEC had lost its neutrality.

  Although Article Eight of the Election and Recall Law for Public Servants (公職人員選舉罷免法) stipulates that local election commissions are subordinate to the CEC, the regulation does not mean that local commissions are under the command of the CEC, Tseng said.

  At issue was the contention over the voting format for next month's legislative elections and two referendums.

  The DPP favors the CEC's decision to adopt a one-step voting system, in which voters receive the ballots for the legislative elections and the two referendums at two separate desks before casting them into four separate boxes.

  The KMT prefers a two-step voting format in which voters receive the legislative ballots and cast them first, before receiving the ballots for the two referendums.

  The Cabinet on Monday issued an ultimatum to local election commission heads, stressing that those who failed to implement the one-step voting format during the Jan. 12 legislative election would be dismissed, replaced, brought to justice and disciplined.

  At a separate setting, KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday urged the government to stop manipulating the issue of the voting procedure and ignoring the economic issue.

  "What is the government doing by fighting over this issue again and again? Don't you see the rising unemployment and suicide rate? Don't think that the public are idiots," Ma said while campaigning for KMT legislative candidates in Taichung.

  Meanwhile, Samuel Wu (吳秀光), head of Taipei City's Election Commission, said yesterday he would sue the DPP Taipei City Council caucus for defamation after the caucus sued him for voting obstruction with his insistence on following the two-step voting format.

  Wu said he was simply following the regulations laid down by the city's election commission.

  Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) yesterday called on pan-blue politicians to accept the one-step voting format instead of being "sinners in the history" as the adoption of two-step voting procedure would create chaos at the polls.

  Former CEC head Huang Shih-cheng (黃石城) advised at a separate setting yesterday that both parties should "take a step back" and try to reach a compromise over the voting system quagmire.

  He also urged all parties to keep their hands off the CEC to protect the commission's neutrality.

  Huang acknowledged that local voting districts, by law, are under the CEC's jurisdiction, but added that the CEC should respect the opinions of local election leaders and take their suggestions into consideration.

  Additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan, Mo Yan-chih and Jenny W. Hsu
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