National Assembly Passes into History

On June 7, the National Assembly voted in favor of constitutional amendments passed by the Legislative Yuan last year, performing its last mission. In future, constitutional amendments raised by the legislature will be put to a referendum, returning the constitution to the people.

With an exemplary united mobilization of forces between Taiwan's two leading political parties, the Democratic Progressive Party and the Kuomintang, the result saw 249 votes in favor and 48 votes against, passing the three-quarter-majority threshold.

The amendments included the abolition of the National Assembly, so that all legislative functions are now assumed by a single legislative body, while the number of legislators has been halved. From the 2007 legislative elections, there will be 113 legislators and their terms will be increased from three to four years. Of these, 73 will come from electoral districts, six will be Aboriginal representatives, and 34 will be at-large representatives.

Henceforth, a motion to impeach the president or vice-president will have to be proposed by at least half of the legislature, and passed by at least two-thirds of the legislature. The case will then be put to the Constitutional Court. If the judgment of the Constitutional Court upholds the impeachment, the impeached will be immediately removed from office.

Constitutional amendments and changes to national territory must be put to a national referendum within the period six to nine months after they are passed by the Legislative Yuan. Votes in favor have to surpass half of Taiwan's eligible voters in order for the amendments to pass.

On the whole, even though halving the number of legislative seats reflects public opinion, there are nevertheless some worrying aspects. Among them is the fact that the adoption of a single-member-district, two-votes-per-voter system for legislative elections will strengthen Taiwan's two most powerful political parties, making it harder for smaller parties to survive.

Many people fear that the single-member district system will create a situation in which some votes are worth more than others. For example, on the outlying islands just several thousand votes are required to elect a legislator, while in metropolitan areas, tens or even hundreds of thousands of votes will be needed, creating an unequal situation. Meanwhile, knives are already being sharpened over the grim test of redrawing electoral boundaries. In the case of Taipei County, early estimates suggest that it will be divided into 12 electoral zones, each with 310,000 voters. Of these, Panchiao, Chungho, Hsinchuang and Sanchung will each have a legislative representative, leaving 25 other townships and cities to be sliced up for the remaining eight seats. Therefore, legislators with overlapping support bases will have to coordinate over the choice of district in which to run.

With the curtain closed on the above constitutional amendments, President Chen Shui-bian has announced the second stage of constitutional reform. Although the Office of the President states that future constitutional referenda will involve non-sensitive issues such as the separation of powers, the choice between a presidential or cabinet system of government, abolition of the provincial government, and lowering the voting age to 18-avoiding questions of sovereignty or of changing the country's name or territory-there is still uncertainty as to whether they can gain support from the opposition parties.

Premier Frank Hsieh said that this stage of constitutional reform was the first step in a longer reform process. The next step of reforming electoral law and redrawing electoral boundaries was a politically highly sensitive task. Countries around the world have seen disputes on the issue, and he said he hoped the Central Election Commission would seek out a wide range of views, and take an objective, impartial and just path when redrawing electoral districts.

Premier Hsieh emphasized that reform had to be promoted wholeheartedly. The Central Election Commission has already affirmed that at the year-end elections it will adopt a "three-in-one" method (holding simultaneous elections for county commissioners and mayors of major cities, township and city councilors, and mayors of townships and minor cities). While this change hasn't yet been put into law, if election timing can be simplified, reducing inconvenience for the public and costs for society, the government should unstintingly work towards implementing it.