Create local at-large seats to end cronyism: groups
PATH TO DISRUPTION: Local government leaders are China’s gateway to influencing the nation, and a lack of oversight gives Beijing an opportunity, a campaigner said
By Chen Yu-fu and Kayleigh Madjar / Staff reporter, with staff writer
Civic groups yesterday urged legislators to create councilor-at-large seats in local governments to attract more young people to local leadership positions and to root out party cronyism.
The long-standing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) system of partisan clientelism, of which the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is also guilty, must be given up to allow room for local talent and smaller parties, Economic Democracy Union president Lin Hsiu-hsin (林秀幸) told a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
The nation cannot keep allowing party factions to run local governments, she said, calling on legislators to amend the Local Government Act (地方制度法) to allow for councilor-at-large seats, without changing the overall number of seats.
From left, New Power Party Legislator Chiu Hsien-chih, Economic Democracy Union president Lin Hsiu-hsin, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Fan Yun and Taiwan Citizen Front Deputy Secretary-General Chen Ku-hsiung hold a news conference yesterday at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times