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2012 ELECTIONS:
Committee passes DPP¡¦s transition bill
FLOORED: A proposed bill to establish a protocol
to handle the period between the presidential election and inauguration day will
have its first reading on Friday
By Chiu Yan-ling / Staff Reporter
The legislature¡¦s Procedure Committee yesterday passed a Democratic Progressive
Party (DPP) caucus-proposed bill aimed at establishing a protocol to regulate
transfers of power for the period between presidential elections and their
inaugurations.
The proposal is now listed on Friday¡¦s legislative agenda. In the hope that the
proposed bill could be passed before the current legislative session goes into
recess next Wednesday, the DPP caucus yesterday said it would demand that the
bill be put directly to a second reading during Friday¡¦s plenary session and
then be put to discussion, along with a similar proposal by Chinese Nationalist
Party (KMT) Legislator Lu Hsueh-chang (§f¾Ç¼Ì).
The DPP caucus¡¦ version would stipulate that as soon as the Central Election
Commission (CEC) announces an election result, the president-elect must
establish an office to handle pre-inauguration matters. During the transitional
period, officials from the central government should brief the -president-elect
on their respective departments¡¦ affairs, it added.
As for an incumbent who fails in a re-election bid, he or she must neither
appoint nor transfer officials during the period between Election Day and the
day she or he leaves office, it said. With the exception of those that have been
passed by the legislature, all directives, budgets and policies that the
president-elect deems controversial should be put on hold for the
president-elect and vice president-elect to deal with after they assume office,
it added.
The main difference between the DPP version and the KMT caucus¡¦ version (which
was later combined with the version proposed by Lu) was that the KMT caucus was
of the opinion that a ¡§handover committee¡¨ should be established within seven
days of the CEC¡¦s announcement of the election result. The KMT caucus¡¦ version
suggested that a committee head be appointed by the president-elect, while both
the incumbent and the president-elect select five people each to serve as
members of the committee.
The CEC¡¦s decision earlier this year to merge next year¡¦s presidential election
and the legislative elections means the presidential vote, which was supposed to
be held in March next year, will take place in January, creating an
unprecedented four-month gap between the presidential election and the
president-elect¡¦s inauguration on May 20.
A number of academics have expressed concerns over the four-month transition
period on issues such as whether there should be an en masse resignation of the
Cabinet and whether the caretaker government would refrain from making major
policy changes.
Additional reporting by CNA
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