The Central Personnel Administration (CPA), the government agency in charge of civil servants, last night issued a rare press release encouraging civil servants to cast their ballots in the legislative by-election in Taipei’s Da-an District (大安) on Saturday.
The move prompted criticism from pan-green lawmakers, who accused the government of violating administrative neutrality.
Also included in the statement was a call for civil servants to abide by a bill designed to maintain their neutrality that was passed by the legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee on Thursday.
CRITICISM
Slamming the move, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kao Jyh-Peng (高志鵬) said the appeal was “an obvious attempt to canvass votes for Chiang Nai-shin (蔣乃辛),” the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate in the by-election.
“It’s really pathetic that the CPA, a government agency supposed to remain neutral as a model for civil servants, has become an organizational unit of the KMT,” Kao said.
“As Da-an district is a constituency where a large portion of the residents are civil servants, the move by the CPA shows that the KMT is worried that Chiang may lose the by-election,” Kao said. “The KMT is hoping to avoid a repeat of its failure in the legislative by-election in Miaoli County on March 14.”
ELECTION LOSS
Kao was referring to the KMT’s loss in the Miaoli by-election in which their candidate narrowly lost to independent candidate Kang Shih-ju (康世儒).
Miaoli is viewed as a pan-blue stronghold and the DPP did not have a candidate in the by-election.
KMT Legislator Wu Yu-Sheng (吳育昇), on the other hand, said the CPA did nothing wrong in issuing the statement as it did not ask civil servants to vote for Chiang.
“It’s quite normal for the CPA to call on civil servants to vote,” Wu said.
RESIGNATION
Saturday’s by-election is being held following the resignation of former KMT legislator Diane Lee (李慶安) in January over a dual-citizenship controversy.
Six candidates have registered for the Da-an by-election — Chiang of the KMT, the DPP’s Chou Po-ya (周柏雅), Calvin Wen (溫炳原) of the Green Party Taiwan and independent candidates Yao Li-ming (姚立明), Liu Yi-chun (劉義鈞) and Cheng Yuan-chi (陳源奇).
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
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