Mon, Dec 03, 2007 page3

• Majority in survey back CEC's one-step voting

  FOLLOW ORDERS The survey conducted by the DPP also found most respondents agreed district election commissions should obey the commission's decision

  • By Ko Shu-ling and Flora Wang / STAFF REPORTERS
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  A majority of respondents in a survey conducted by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said they approved the Central Election Commission's (CEC) decision to distribute the ballots for legislative elections and two referendums together in next month's polls.

  The poll, conducted by the party's Poll Center between Wednesday and Friday, surveyed 1,009 adults and found that 56 percent of respondents were in favor of the CEC decision to adopt one-step voting, whereby voters would receive two ballots for the legislative elections and two referendum ballots simultaneously.

  Fifty-seven percent of respondents said two-step voting, proposed by the 18 pan-blue local governments, was "inappropriate."

  The figure was up 9 percent from a poll the week before.

  In a bid to resolve the dispute, CEC Chairman Chang Cheng-hsiung (張政雄) said he would meet with the chairmen of the 18 local election commissions today.

  The DPP poll also found that 62 percent of the respondents agreed that district election commissions should follow the CEC decision.

  Meanwhile, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) yesterday dismissed media speculation that the caucus had changed its stance on CEC appointments.

  Tseng said that the caucus was willing to negotiate its draft amendment on the commission's composition with other caucuses, but the caucus would not put forth any new proposal at this point.

  Tseng was responding to a report in the Chinese-language China Times yesterday that quoted an unidentified senior KMT official as saying the KMT had drawn up a revised amendment to the Organic Law of the Central Election Commission (中央選舉委員會組織法) to facilitate a cross-party agreement.

  The story said the KMT had backed down on its original proposal, which suggested commission members be appointed based on the number of seats held by each party in the legislature.

  The story quoted the KMT official as saying that the party's new proposal would suggest the Cabinet be given the authority to nominate eight of the 17 commission members, while the remaining eight nominees and commission chairman should be negotiated with the opposition.

  Tseng said yesterday the KMT had no such new proposal.

  He said the KMT would push for a vote in the legislature on its draft amendment if cross-party negotiations fail.

  "We should vote if we have to," he said. "This is the democratic spirit Taiwan is proud of."

  In a campaign rally in Taipei County yesterday, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) accused the KMT of trying to use the amendment as leverage to force the administration to abandon the one-step voting procedure.

  Chen said the draft amendment violates the Constitution and infringes on executive authority, adding that the KMT was trying to meddle with the two referendums, dominate the independent body and protect its stolen assets.

  At a separate setting, Taiwan Solidarity Union Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) yesterday lashed out at both the DPP and KMT for bickering over voting procedures instead of helping the population by addressing more important matters.

  Huang also recommended the two ballots for legislative elections be distributed separately to avoid confusion between the district legislator and legislator-at-large races.

  Under the "one district, two votes" system, Huang said, voters must have resided at their registered address for at least four months to vote in a given district's legislative race, while all voters have the right to cast a ballot in the legislator-at-large race.
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