If all goes well, a new president is to be elected when the electorate go to the polls on Jan. 16 to vote in the combined presidential and legislative elections.
As the presidential inauguration is not to take place until May 20, it means there will be a four-month gap between the presidential election and the day the new president and vice president take office.
Is this four-month period reasonable? Many political observers have their doubts.
Prior to the 2012 presidential election, the presidential poll was in March and the new president and vice president were sworn in on May 20.
However, following the Central Election Commission’s decision to combine the presidential and legislative elections, the transition period between the presidential election and inauguration has been extended.
The four-month window between the election and the inauguration did not prove to be much of an issue in the presidential election four years ago, because President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) ended up winning another term.
However, this time around Ma is certain not to be elected again.
Therefore, concerns have been raised over what could happen during the four-month post-election transition — not to mention other challenging issues, such as whether the military will remain neutral and whether the caretaker government will refrain from making major policy changes.
After all, until Ma steps down, he is still the president, and there is no way that Taiwanese can demand that he just sit on his hands during the transition period.
While some observers remain confident, saying that democracy has taken root in Taiwan and there is no need to worry, many Taiwanese remain concerned over whether power will be transferred peacefully.
Fortunately, the lawmakers to be elected on Jan. 16 are to be sworn in and begin a new legislative session on Feb. 1.
The lawmakers should make it their priority to pass the draft government transition act, ensuring that the caretaker government of the Ma administration cannot do anything that might harm the nation’s or the public’s interests in any way.
The government transition bill has been sitting idle in the Legislative Yuan for the past seven years — with no progress made.
The passage of the act is needed to stipulate a clear delineation of the powers of incumbent presidents during the transitional window — for instance, whether incumbent presidents should be able to sign treaties with other nations and how their administrations should make use of government budgets.
Another issue that needs to be addressed is how an incumbent administration provides information, resources and training to an incoming administration.
To ensure that its newly elected representatives in the Legislative Yuan truly reflect its concerns over the transition of power, the electorate should bear in mind that votes cast for legislative candidates are just as important as votes cast for presidential candidates.
World leaders are preparing themselves for a second Donald Trump presidency. Some leaders know more or less where he stands: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy knows that a difficult negotiation process is about to be forced on his country, and the leaders of NATO countries would be well aware of being complacent about US military support with Trump in power. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would likely be feeling relief as the constraints placed on him by the US President Joe Biden administration would finally be released. However, for President William Lai (賴清德) the calculation is not simple. Trump has surrounded himself
US president-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday named US Representative Mike Waltz, a vocal supporter of arms sales to Taiwan who has called China an “existential threat,” as his national security advisor, and on Thursday named US Senator Marco Rubio, founding member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China — a global, cross-party alliance to address the challenges that China poses to the rules-based order — as his secretary of state. Trump’s appointments, including US Representative Elise Stefanik as US ambassador to the UN, who has been a strong supporter of Taiwan in the US Congress, and Robert Lighthizer as US trade
Following the BRICS summit held in Kazan, Russia, last month, media outlets circulated familiar narratives about Russia and China’s plans to dethrone the US dollar and build a BRICS-led global order. Each summit brings renewed buzz about a BRICS cross-border payment system designed to replace the SWIFT payment system, allowing members to trade without using US dollars. Articles often highlight the appeal of this concept to BRICS members — bypassing sanctions, reducing US dollar dependence and escaping US influence. They say that, if widely adopted, the US dollar could lose its global currency status. However, none of these articles provide
On Friday last week, tens of thousands of young Chinese took part in a bike ride overnight from Henan Province’s Zhengzhou (鄭州) to the historical city of Kaifeng in search of breakfast. The night ride became a viral craze after four female university students in June chronicled their ride on social media from Zhengzhou in search of soup dumplings in Kaifeng. Propelled by the slogan “youth is priceless,” the number of nocturnal riders surged to about 100,000 on Friday last week. The main road connecting the two cities was crammed with cyclists as police tried to maintain order. That sparked
RSS