Former premier Simon Chang (張善政), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) vice presidential candidate, yesterday accused the government of oppression after the Central Election Commission (CEC) refused to include references to his master’s and doctoral degrees in the official voters’ pamphlet.
The commission would not recognize his degrees in the official pamphlets for the elections on Saturday next week, which shows that the government is “oppressing” him, Chang told reporters in New Taipei City.
In the “education” section for Chang, the pamphlet shows that he has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from National Taiwan University (NTU).
The “experience” section shows that he has a doctoral degree in civil engineering from Cornell University in New York and a master’s in civil engineering from Stanford University in California, alongside his roles as premier and former head of hardware operations for Google Asia Pacific Pte.
He was unable to list his master’s and doctoral degrees in the “education” section, as the commission requires that diplomas received abroad be verified by Taiwanese consular services for that country, Chang wrote on Facebook yesterday.
By the time he found out about the rule, it was too late for him to send the documentation to the US to be verified, he wrote.
CEC Vice Chairman Chen Chao-chien (陳朝建) told reporters that the rule is in documents the commission released on Nov. 14 when it announced details about registering as a presidential candidate.
They are also in the enforcement rules of the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法), Chen said.
“One should not say that they left their helmet at home and blame the police for not giving them enough time to get the helmet,” Chen said.
Chang said that Chen’s logic was “ridiculous.”
While he was a lecturer at NTU, the Ministry of Education never required such a verification process, Chang said.
Why are there different systems for recognizing diplomas, he said.
National Chengchi University professor Hsu Shih-jung (徐世榮) said that Taiwanese universities often require prospective faculty members to have diplomas received abroad verified in the same manner that the commission does.
“As a former premier, Chang should know the rules,” Hsu said.
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