A by-election is to be held on March 4 to fill the legislative seat vacated by Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), who was inaugurated as Nantou County commissioner on Sunday, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said on Sunday.
Under the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), an election must be held within three months of a legislative seat becoming vacant, the CEC said in a statement.
Voting in the March 4 by-election is to start at 8am and end at 4pm, the CEC said.
Photo: Liu Pin-chuan, Taipei Times
The by-election is to be officially announced today, and candidate registration is scheduled to take place from Jan. 9 to 13, it said.
Candidates for the race being speculated on by local media include Nantou County chapter head Lin Ru-bin (林儒彬), Nantou Mayor Song Huai-lin (宋懷琳) and Nantou County Councilor Yu Hao (游顥), all from the KMT.
Also being reported are Jiji Township (集集) Mayor Chen Ji-heng (陳紀衡) and Nantou County Councilor Lai Yen-hsueh (賴燕雪) from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), media reports have said.
The DPP has also reportedly encouraged Tsai Pei-hui (蔡培慧), who lost to Hsu in the commissioner election on Nov. 26, to run in the legislative by-election.
Also sworn in as local leaders on Sunday were two other legislators: Chou Chun-mi (周春米) of the DPP as Pingtung County commissioner and Ann Kao (高虹安) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) as Hsinchu mayor.
However, as both Chou and Kao were legislators-at-large — meaning that they were elected on a separate ballot in which voters choose their preferred political party, rather than individual candidates tied to electoral districts — their seats can be filled by their parties.
Chou’s seat has been filled by Chen Ching-min (陳靜敏), who previously served as a DPP lawmaker, while Kao’s was filled by TPP legislative caucus office director Chen Wan-hui (陳琬惠), the CEC said.
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