OUT WITH THE OLD:‘Today our votes ended the KMT’s black money politics and changed the definition of Taiwan’s local politics,’ DPP Legislator Kuan Bi-ling said
Taipei Times
Date: May 28, 2016
By: Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter
Amendments to the Local Government Act (地方制度法) requiring speakers and deputy speakers of
Lawmakers yesterday hold up placards in the legislature in Taipei in support of an amendment to the Local Government Act. Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
local councils to be elected by open ballots cleared the legislative floor yesterday.
Existing local government law stipulates that speakers and deputy speakers of the councils of special municipalities, cities and counties, and the chairpersons and vice chairpersons of township councils, “shall be elected or recalled by secret ballot by the councilors of the special municipality, county/city councilors, and township/city representatives.”
The amendments changed the wording of the act from “secret” to “registered” votes.
Before the amendments were voted on — following Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) objections to the the proposed amendments — Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers took turns to applaud the change and said the proposal would make local politics more transparent and hold politicians accountable to voters. [FULL STORY]
