A Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) proposal to amend the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) is to be discussed at a public hearing on Wednesday and deliberated at the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee on Thursday, the Legislative Yuan’s Conference Department said.
The proposal states that elected officials should not be impeached or recalled within a year of being elected into office.
The KMT caucus said the proposed amendments do not seek to alter the legal threshold for recall petitions.
Photo: Lin Liang-sheng, Taipei Time
The proposed amendment is intended to make the act more fair and reasonable, the caucus said, adding that it aims to prevent the use of recalls as a form of revenge.
The public hearing next week seeks to make the debate on the issue transparent and include the public in the process, it added.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said the KMT’s move was just a ploy to prevent its lawmakers from being recalled.
Ker added that even if the amendment were to pass, it would only affect the incoming legislators, citing that when Constitutional Interpretation No. 499 went into effect, it only affected future legislators.
DPP caucus secretary-general Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said the KMT’s amendment would only make it more difficult for the public to exercise their rights to issue a recall against a public official.
The KMT was just afraid of recalls, she said.
Wu said her caucus would not support the amendment.
KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday said the discussion of an amendment to the act is not related to civic groups petitioning for Keelung Mayor George Hsieh (謝國樑) to be recalled.
The amendment is about correcting what is unreasonable, he said.
One does not need to present proof of identity when participating in a recall petition, but a printed copy of one’s national ID Card should be necessary, he said.
Chu added that the issue of whether the votes supporting the recall should exceed the number of votes that the recall target had garnered in the last election should be discussed.
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on Friday said his party opposed changing the legal threshold for a recall to succeed and also opposed using recalls as a political tool.
However, the process of recalling politicians should be reviewed and one should not be able to copy someone’s household registration data and pass it off as having convinced them to sign the petition, he said.
Additional reporting by Chou Min-hung and Liu Wan-lin
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