Central Election Commission (CEC) Chairman Lee Chin-yung (李進勇) today urged the premier to quickly submit a list of nominees to replace outgoing commissioners, warning that failure to approve new members in a timely manner would “bring the CEC’s operations to a standstill.”
Of the CEC’s 10 current commissioners, six are reaching the end of their four-year terms on Nov. 3.
Four of them — including Lee — have already been re-elected once and by law must be replaced.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
Commissioners must be nominated by the premier three months before the end of the current commissioners’ term, then approved by the Legislative Yuan.
Based on this schedule, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) was due to nominate successors for the six members by August, but he has yet to submit a list to the legislature.
Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) had previously said that the names would be submitted following the start of the new legislative session.
Lee Chin-yung told a meeting of the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee today that he was worried about the nominations, as election-related affairs must not be interrupted.
Local elections are to be held late next year, with related planning — including setting the schedule — to be done early in the year, he said.
However, meetings cannot be held without a quorum of commissioners, which is half of the nine to 11 allowed for under law, he said.
“A vacancy would create a true crisis for the country,” he added.
The Executive Yuan is currently seeking candidates, he said, encouraging potential nominees to shoulder the responsibility.
Additional reporting by Lee Wen-hsin
TRACK RECORD: The elderly woman from the viral video did not report for her sentence for shoplifting, and was known for allegedly harassing people on the metro Taipei police yesterday arrested an elderly woman causing an disturbance at a convenience store, as she is wanted on shoplifting offenses, and identified her as in the “Taipei Metro flying kick incident” video, which has gone viral online in recent days. The woman, surnamed Tseng (曾), 73, was taken to Taipei’s Datong Police Precinct to record a statement, then escorted to the Taipei Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning, as she was found to have several shoplifting convictions, including an outstanding warrant for her failure to serve a 55-day jail sentence. The widely circulated video, recorded on a Taipei Metro train on
The observatory at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) is to reopen tomorrow after nearly two years of renovation, the Civil Aviation Administration said yesterday. The civil aviation authority made the announcement ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival long weekend after Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) visited the renovated facility yesterday morning. Chen said he loved watching planes fly overhead in Taipei’s Binjiang Street, adding that he was particularly impressed by the childcare room as well as the futuristic-style entrance to the observatory. Taipei International Airport Office is conducting a final inspection of the observatory today and tomorrow before reopening it
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei City Government yesterday said it intends to seek NT$100,000 from the operator of the YouBike public bicycle rental system after a failure yesterday evening disrupted services for more than 20,000 users. The outage began at 6:34pm and affected stations in Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan before services were fully restored after midnight, YouBike Co said. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said the incident seriously undermined residents’ rights and he had instructed the Taipei City Department of Transportation to impose the maximum penalty for the company’s breach of contractual obligations. He also demanded a full report and timetable for improvements from
RSS