The New Power Party (NPP) yesterday said that it would propose changes to the election laws that would require holders of public office to step down when running for other positions and to return the subsidy for the previous election if they do not resign by a certain date.
Draft amendments, if passed quickly, would require Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), who has won the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential primary, to step down as mayor and possibly to return an election subsidy of about NT$26 million (US$836,685) that he received after being elected.
Under the proposed amendments to the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) and the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法), holders of public office would need to relinquish their position starting the day they register to run for another position, NPP caucus whip Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Those failing to step down would need to return within 30 days the election subsidy of NT$30 per vote that they received after their original victory, he said, adding that the changes would apply to the president, vice president, city mayors, county commissioners, local councilors and legislators running for another position.
Current regulations on the election subsidy have turned elections into “a profitable business” for politicians, he said.
By running for president less than a year after being elected mayor, Han is expected to receive NT$200 million in subsidies for the two elections, Hsu said.
“Even if he loses the election, he can still stay at his original position and keep the initial subsidy,” he said.
The issue has gained public attention because of Han, but it is a common phenomenon, he said, adding that in the mayoral and commissioner elections of the past 10 years, 45 public officials ran for other positions without stepping down.
Of the 45, 20 were members of the KMT, 18 were from the Democratic Progressive Party and seven ran as independents, Hsu added.
They received NT$65 million in subsidies for their initial election campaigns, he said, citing Central Election Commission statistics.
“We hope to highlight the value of public officials resigning before they register to run for another position and encourage political parties to change the way that they select their candidates,” he said.
The NPP would never nominate someone who intended to keep their office while running for another position, he added.
Han had said that he would only deal with election affairs on the weekend, but to attend a news conference at the KMT headquarters on Monday, he had canceled a visit to a Rukai festival in Kaohsiung, NPP Kaohsiung City Councilor Lin Yu-kai (林于凱) said.
Han’s campaigning could make him unavailable to handle city affairs, he said, adding that polls show that 60 percent of Kaohsiung residents want Han to resign.
The NPP would propose the bill in September when the next legislative session begins, NPP Kaohsiung chapter head Chen Hui-min (陳惠敏) said.
The bill could be passed by mid-October, before candidates need to register for the presidential election in January next year, she added.
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
RSS