Taipei, May 26 (CNA) With a new mixed electoral system being adopted in Taiwan's forthcoming legislative election, Legislative Yuan speaker Wang Jing-pyng and academia from Taiwan, Japan and South Korea offered various views on the system in a symposium Saturday.
The impact of the new system remain to be seen, but the election reform has been the consensus of all parties and there is no turning back, said Wang in "International Symposium on Mixed Electoral Systems in East Asia, " which was organized by Election Study Center of National Chengchi University.
It is sometimes difficult -- and not too difficult at the same time -- to imagine what a different electoral system would impact the political scene, said Yoshiaki Kobayashi, a professor at Japan's Keio University, in a keynote speech.
Citing the U.S. 2000 presidential election as an example, Kobayashi said that if Al Gore, who garnered more popular votes but less electoral votes than the eventual winner George Bush, was elected the U.S. president, a reasonable speculation was that the world political scene and the way U.S. countered terrorism after the 911
attack would have been different.
The new "single-member districts, two vote system" is expected to change the legislative "ecology" and possibly Taiwan's politics, although there is no telling that it will be a change of good or bad, Wang said.
It is generally agreed that the mixed electoral system Japan and Taiwan adopted favors a two-party politics and will facilitate political debate, said Kobayashi, who also serves as the president of Japan Political Science Association.
However, 10 years after Japan adopted the new system, the results have been mixed as some legislators didn't think the mixed voting system helpful, Kobayashi said.
"One thing is sure after the system change, which is that the legislators have to spend more time in their respective district because that is where the votes came from, " Wang said.
Spending more time in local districts is both good and bad, Wang elaborated, as attendance record of legislators may drop dramatically in future legislative session.
Professors from Taiwan, Japan and South Korea submitted theses in the one-day symposium and discussed on a wide range of issues including the impact of electoral system change, the review of Taiwan's redistricting, changes and continuity in voting behavior after the electoral system change.