Legislature approves measures to tighten recall petition requirements

Taipei, Dec. 20 (CNA) Amendments intended to tighten requirements for petitions used to initiate a recall of an elected official passed the Legislature on Friday afternoon, following hours of clashes between the ruling and opposition parties.

The amendments to the Public Officials Election and Recall Act, proposed by main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) lawmakers and backed by their counterparts from the smaller Taiwan People's Party (TPP), were adopted on the legislative floor after receiving majority votes.

Lawmakers from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) registered to deliver lengthy speeches before each measure was put to vote -- a common tactic to delay the deliberation process -- but their efforts were thwarted by KMT and TPP lawmakers who together hold a majority in the lawmaking body.

They added one article to the Public Officials Election and Recall Act and made revisions to four more.

The new amendments will require individuals initiating a recall petition and those who sign up to such an initiative to provide photocopies of their identification cards when submitting their petition signatures.

The amendments also include punitive measures, stipulating that individuals found guilty of using someone else's identification or forging an ID for a recall petition may face up to five years in prison or a fine of up to NT$1 million (US$30,592).

At present, campaigners only have to present the ID numbers and registered addresses of endorsers of the recall petition to local election commissions, a process critics argue has been abused.

More controversial revisions proposed by the KMT, however, including the requirement that the number of votes in favor of ousting an elected official would have to exceed the votes the official got when originally elected for the recall to pass, were not addressed Friday.

That measure, in particular, only cleared a legislative committee recently, and had to be set aside for a month before being put to a vote on the floor of the Legislature.

The package of amendments were among three proposed being pushed through by KMT and TPP lawmakers on Friday, despite protests mobilized by the ruling party and civil society groups outside the Legislative Yuan complex.

DPP lawmakers argued that none of these should be put to a vote on Friday, as they had not been discussed comprehensively in committee, and inter-party negotiations had failed to resolve the differences.

They did not specifically address why they opposed the idea of tightening ID verification of petition endorsers.

The other two bills, which were being considered by the Legislature later Friday, seek to curb the Constitutional Court's ability to rule on cases and change the distribution of central government revenue, respectively.

Friday's session did not begin until around 11:40 a.m., about an hour and a half later than usual, due to physical altercations and a long standoff between lawmakers from the KMT and the DPP.

DPP lawmakers had stormed the chamber the night before in an attempt to block the session.