About 100 people yesterday took part in an open-air public forum outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei to discuss proposals on electoral reforms for the legislature, amid mounting criticism over the current electoral system.
Led by Taiwan Democracy Watch, the organizers invited participants to brainstorm possible electoral reforms, saying that current legislative institutions have failed to adequately reflect diverse views and groups in society.
“We must tackle this question: Is our democracy simply the rule of a majority, or should it convey diversity?” human rights lawyer Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said during introductory comments at the forum.
One of the major issues discussed at the forum was a perceived discrepancy between the percentage of votes a party receives and the number of seats it wins.
As an example, Lai cited the 2008 legislative elections, in which the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) garnered three-quarters of legislative seats, despite only receiving around 53 percent of the popular vote.
Lai said that the discrepancy was due to 70 percent of the seats in the legislature being derived from single-member constituencies, which he described as a “winner take all” system that fails to represent votes proportionally.
He said that legislators-at-large — which are allocated according to proportional representation based on predetermined party-nominated lists — should be increased to address the problem.
Other participants called for the need to lower the 5 percent threshold for legislature-at-large seats, as smaller parties are rarely able to attain 5 percent of the popular vote.
Two legislators have submitted proposals for legislative electoral reform — the KMT’s Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟) and the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Lee Ying-yuan (李應元).
Both proposals suggest an increase in the total amount of legislators. While the DPP version adds 43 additional legislator-at-large seats, the KMT version proposes a mix of 30 additional legislators-at-large and seven new district legislators.
The two proposals also differ in that the KMT supports the continued use of a parallel voting system, while the DPP aims to adopt a German-influenced mixed-member proportional representational system, in which the total amount of seats — the sum of district seats and legislator-at-large seats — is determined by the proportion of party votes.
The event was part of a series of grassroots forums launched by the Civic Alliance to Promote Constitutional Reform, a group advocating amendments to the Constitution by inviting increased public participation.
Given that legislative electoral regulations are written in the Constitution, an amendment would be required to enact any proposed reforms.
By law, amendments to the Constitution need to be ratified by a popular referendum, which must be announced six months prior. Ongoing discussions have suggested that a referendum be held concurrently with the presidential and legislative elections in January next year.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by