Lawmakers from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), Taiwan’s main opposition party, yesterday proposed constitutional and legal changes to create a two-round absolute majority system for electing the president in time for the 2028 election.
KMT Legislator Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) at a Legislative Yuan news conference said that he, along with KMT lawmakers Yeh Yuan-chih (葉元之), Weng Hsiao-ling (翁曉玲) and Wu Tsung-hsien (吳宗憲), would submit draft constitutional and legal amendments in the new legislative session.
“The proposal has two parts: One is to amend the Constitution to change the presidential election system to an absolute majority two-round system; the other is to revise election laws to resolve the difficulties of minority presidents,” Lo said.
Photo: CNA
Lo was referring to a situation in which one party controls the presidency, but does not command a majority in the legislature.
Such a situation has existed in Taiwan since last year’s election under President William Lai’s (賴清德) Democratic Progressive Party administration.
A two-round presidential vote would allow voters in the first round to “support their favorite candidate without worrying” that strategic voting could “let the most disliked candidate win,” Lo said.
Lo criticized the current plurality system as one that leads to candidates working to split the opponent’s camp and manipulating strategic voting, making voters afraid to support their favorite candidate, which leads to “a very negative election atmosphere.”
The changes could improve the election atmosphere and would strengthen the president’s legitimacy, he said.
Most KMT lawmakers support the reform, Lo said, adding that he has privately exchanged views with Taiwan People’s Party lawmakers and would continue to work to build cross-party consensus.
Weng said that “more than 70 percent of the more than 40 countries with direct presidential elections adopt a two-round system.”
In contrast, the current system lets a president win “without obtaining more than half of the votes,” Weng said.
Although a two-round presidential vote might increase election expenses, it is “worth it” from the perspective of democratic legitimacy and political stability, Wu said.
The reforms would encourage presidential candidates to “move toward the center, compromise and moderate,” and help Taiwan “avoid constant confrontation and division, and move toward harmony and unity,” Yeh said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
RSS