The Cabinet yesterday approved a proposal to combine all local elections by 2014 to move away from a system that sometimes saw local elections take place each year to one where local elections will be held every four years.
Under the proposed amendment to the Local Government Act (地方制度法), the tenure of the next heads of local governments would be extended by one year and five days.
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) was quoted in a press release as telling the Cabinet that the Ministry of the Interior should enhance communication with lawmakers to push through the amendment in the legislature’s fall session, which begins today.
The proposal would also result in the terms of office of the next county and city councilors and that of township and village chiefs being extended by nine months and 24 days, while next the representatives of township councils and borough chiefs would stay in office for an additional four months and 24 days.
The elections for local officials, currently scheduled for 2013, would be held the year after together with the elections for mayors of special municipalities and city councilors.
The amendment also deals with changes in the structure of local governments and the number of seats of county and city councils following the redemarcation of the country’s administrative map earlier this year. Taipei County was upgraded to a special municipality, as were the merged Taichung county and city, Kaohsiung county and city, as well as Tainan county and city.
According to the amendment, the number of city councilors in the upgraded Taipei County will be increased by one. The number of city councilors in the merged Taichung county and city will be reduced from 103 to 63, while those in the merged Kaohsiung city and county will drop from 98 to 66 and in the merged Tainan county and city from 91 to 57.
The amendment has to clear the legislature by the end of this year, when the next round of elections for local government commissioners is scheduled, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) said although combining the elections could save money, it might result in intensified political confrontation.
He said whether national elections, such as the presidential and legislative elections, should be combined was also an issue worthy of discussion.
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