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
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS