Members of the Turn Elections Around Campaign and Taiwan Association of University Professors (TAUP) yesterday visited the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) headquarters to ask the party to support their call for proportional representation in local councils based on party lines.
“Local political factions and family clans have controlled local politics for decades, but they have extended their reach into the national political scene by running as legislators,” campaign convener Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) told TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) during a meeting at the party’s headquarters. “This situation has gotten worse and become more obvious since 2008, when the number of seats in the legislature was reduced by about 50 percent.”
Lai said that, for instance, two former Banciao City (板橋) mayors (now known as Banciao District in New Taipei City) — Chiang Hui-chen (江惠貞) and Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池) — are now both Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers, and have a firm grip on local politics because the system of electing one legislator per electoral district has made them super-legislators who could monopolize local politics.
Lai said that the party affiliation of each candidate is not indicated on ballots for local councilors, “but if we want to root out political monopoly by powerful local factions or family clans, we should push for party politics on the local level” to hold political parties responsible for the candidates and their policy proposals.
TAUP chairman Lu Chung-chin (呂忠津) added that smaller political parties would only have room for growth, especially at the local level, when there is proportional representation based on party lines.
Huang said the TSU supports the group’s idea and promised that his party would spare no efforts in pushing for reform.
“It is important to connect local politics with national politics, because there are many vital issues, such as cross-strait agreements, that would have a profound impact on everyone, but many local politicians think it is none of their business and only care about how to serve their constituencies well,” Huang said.
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