The Central Election Commission’s (CEC) budget for next year’s presidential and legislative elections will cost taxpayers nearly NT$2.2 billion (US$67.87 million), an increase of NT$370 million from the 2012 polls, a report by the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Office showed.
Despite the popular perception that combining the two elections saves costs, the Jan. 16 presidential and legislative polls will be more expensive than the first time they were jointly held in 2012, the report said.
The Budget Office report showed that the CEC’s total budget for next year’s elections is NT$2.196 billion, including NT$1.42 billion for the legislative and NT$4.435 million for the presidential elections already spent this year, and an additional NT$773 million for the two elections listed on next year’s budget.
The estimated total budget represented an increase of NT$367.53 million from 2012’s budget of NT$1.829 billion.
A commission official who declined to be named attributed the increase in part to a larger number of eligible voters, which it estimated increased by 880,000 voters, requiring the commission to print more ballots and open additional polling and vote-counting stations.
Miscellaneous expenses accounted for the biggest portion of the increase, the official said, adding that the postponement of the election date for lawmakers added NT$50 million in expenses to the budget.
The budget for public promotion for the elections is estimated at NT$14.56 million, an increase of NT$4 million from 2012’s budget, while projected government subsidies to political candidates is estimated at NT$840 million, an increase of NT$6.87 million, the official said. Both costs fall under miscellaneous expenses.
Election expense per voter is also estimated to rise 22.4 percent from NT$58.49 in 2012 to NT$71.56 next year, the report showed.
The Budget Office added that each civil servant assigned to the CEC or local election commission is to receive a bonus compensation of between NT$4,000 and NT$6,000, depending on the employee’s rank and salary — an expenditure that the office panned as lacking legal and practical necessity.
When asked to comment, the official said that the increase was due to a decision by the Ministry of the Interior to double the extra-duty compensation of civil servants assigned to supervise elections to express the government’s “appreciation for their hard work.”
The Directorate-General of Personnel Administration has yet to rule on the additional overtime pay, the official said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and