The Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration Committee is today scheduled to review amendments to the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) proposed by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chi Kuo-tung (紀國棟).
One of the amendments proposes that when a seat reserved for a woman is not filled as the result of an election, the seat should go to the female candidate with the next-highest number of votes.
However, the amendment has been criticized as favoring particular individuals.
If the amendment passes, the Greater Taichung City Council seat left vacant by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Ho Ho Hsin-chun (何欣純), who was elected to the legislature in January, would be filled by KMT member Lin Pi-hsiu (林碧秀), who lost the city councilor election in 2010 to People First Party candidate Tuan Wei-yu (段緯宇) by 15 votes.
Ho said that although Chi and Lin are not close acquaintances, there have been rumors that Chi’s amendments were deliberately drafted to benefit certain individuals.
According to the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act, if local representatives are disqualified because of bribery, or if a candidate has been deprived of his/her civil rights and not regained them, any vacant seat should be taken by whoever received the next-highest number of votes, though an additional provision stipulates that the candidate in question must have received more than 50 percent of the votes of the previous candidate.
Chi’s amendment, which seeks to reinforce female participation in politics, says that in the event a seat reserved for women becomes vacant (current regulations state that one in every four candidates must be female), regardless of the reason for the vacancy, be it resignation, impeachment, death, or some other reason, it must be filled by the woman who received the next-highest number of votes in that constituency.
It also places no limit on the number of votes a candidate must have received and would also apply to the last election and thereby impact sitting local representatives.
DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) said he did not support the proposal that the amendment should be retrospective to the last election, saying that candidates were clear about their rights and obligations when they took part in elections
Making the amendment retrospective was the same as changing the rules after-the-fact, Lee said.
DPP Legislator Wu Yi-chen (吳宜臻) said that if the amendment was intended to maintain the number of elected female candidates irrespective of the number of votes, that would call the legitimacy of the new representatives into question.
In response, Chi said any system had its good and bad points and it was meaningless to only focus on the bad points.
Translated by Jake Chung, staff writer
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to