A draft amendment proposing that an elected official can only be recalled if the number of recall votes exceeds the number of votes with which they were originally elected is based on a questionable argument, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would become the only country with such a recall system if it is passed.
The legislature’s Internal Administration Committee yesterday reviewed draft amendments to the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), including one motioned by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄) to increase the threshold for passage.
This proposal would make it difficult, but not impossible for elected officials to be recalled, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Yi-yu (蔡易餘) said, citing the example of former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), who was recalled with 939,090 votes after being elected as major with 892,545 votes.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
However, none of the other recall elections held in recent years had a voting rate greater than that of their regular election counterparts, he said, adding that the threshold proposed by Hsu would make future recalls unlikely to succeed
No threshold was set in the act on recall voting rates, and the legal force of a recall vote should not be invalidated because of a low turnout, CEC Chairman Lee Chin-yung (李進勇) said.
The votes an official received in their election should not be used as a benchmark for the votes necessary to recall them, as some people who voted them into the post might change their mind and vote to recall them, Lee said.
The current recall mechanism is deficient due to the low passage thresholds for the petition and the recall election, making it easily abused for political means, Hsu said.
Polls have shown that more than half of the public are opposed to allowing the minority to invalidate the majority, and they agreed with the amendment, Hsu said.
Lee said that Hsu’s phrasing of “the minority invalidating the majority” oversimplified the problem, as turnouts, voting rates and numbers of candidates differ between recalls and elections.
The problem does exist and can be discussed, but comparing recall votes with original votes is an unsuitable solution, he said.
Meanwhile, DPP lawmakers quarreled with KMT Legislator Hsu Hsin-ying (徐欣瑩), who hosted the committee meeting and reduced the speaking time for each legislator, saying that there were too many speakers.
She muted the microphone when some DPP lawmakers were speaking, causing complaints from the DPP caucus.
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