The Cabinet yesterday warned local governments that defying the Central Election Commission's (CEC) one-step voting format was a criminal violation subject to prosecution.
On the heels of its warning that defiant local officials would be violating regulations for civil servants, the Cabinet yesterday cited the Criminal Law and called on local governments to obey the CEC's decision.
At issue is the CEC's ruling last Friday to adopt one-step voting -- in which voters will receive the ballots for legislative elections and two referendums together at the entrance to voting stations on Jan. 12.
The 18 pan-blue-governed cities and counties nationwide have jointly declared that they will employ two-step voting.
The Cabinet had warned that the heads of local governments would be held responsible if their election stations are ordered not to comply with the CEC ruling, adding that front-line election personnel would also be subject to punishment as laid out in the Civil Servants Work Act (
At a press conference with Minister of the Interior Lee Yi-yang (
"The heads of the 18 local governments could become criminal offenders because their decisions to implement two-step voting would infringe on Article No. 147 of the Criminal Code (刑法) which concerns interfering with voting," he said.
Chang said the election results could be annulled if voters put their ballots in the wrong ballot boxes as a result of the arrangement under the "two-step" procedure and the amount of misplaced ballots was significant.
"That would be a serious consequence," he said.
Cabinet Secretary-General Chen Chin-jun (陳景峻) yesterday urged the pan-blue local government heads to abandon their two-step voting plan because it could have repercussions for civil servants, who could lose retirement pay if they ignore the CEC directive.
In his weekly e-newsletter yesterday, President Chen Shui-bian (
"Those who insist on using two-step voting are setting the worst example of `one country, two systems' and causing trouble for election staff," Chen said. "It will become the worst example for teaching in the history of Taiwan's democracy."
Chen argued two-step voting violated the Constitution because voters would reveal their opposition to a referendum if they decided not to accept a ballot for it.
The one-step procedure is simple and less confusing," Chen said. "Taiwan has held five-in-one elections before, where voters cast five ballots at a time. Nobody was confused."
The Taipei Municipal Election Commission said yesterday the city would employ two-step voting and shrugged off Chen's statement that the move would violate the Constitution.
"President Chen was elected with a two-step voting system in 2004. Taiwan is a democratic society and the laws are not interpreted by the president unless he declares martial law," Taipei Deputy Mayor and election commissioner Samuel Wu (吳秀光) said after the commission's two-hour meeting.
Seven of nine commission members voted in favor of the two-step voting system.
Condemning the Cabinet for threatening to punish local governments and election personnel who do not comply with the CEC ruling, Wu said Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) and the commission would take responsibility for any legal disputes.
"The commission and the mayor will be the anchor for all civil election personnel," Wu said.
Taipei City Government Law and Regulation Committee head Yeh Chin-yuan (葉慶元) said local civil servants could only be punished by local governments, not the central government.
Wu warned the CEC against breaking the law by cutting election budgets and said the city government would temporarily cover the expenses and resolve the issue through legal means if the CEC refused to fund its election costs.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has filed an administrative lawsuit seeking to reverse the CEC decision. It has also asked pan-blue lawmakers to freeze a large part of the CEC's budget in retaliation.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS