Taipei, Oct. 25 (CNA) The more powerful political parties in Taiwan -- the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) -- are trying to oppress emerging political forces, which will be detrimental to the development of Taiwan's democracy, the leader of a newly-established party said Thursday.
"As the two-party political system is taking shape and the number of legislators will be halved from 225 to 113, the maneuvering space for a small political party like us has been shrinking because powerful parties are trying to limit the development of other parties through regulation of the electoral system, " said Jou Yi-cheng, leader of the Third Society Party (TSP) which was established in
September.
As a new party, the TSP will have a hard time fielding candidates in the upcoming legislative election. That could become still more difficult, Jou said, referring to the latest rumors that the Central Election Committee (CEC) is considering raising the guarantee deposit of each candidate from NT$200,000 to NT$500,000, and the minimum number of regional legislative candidate nominations from 10 to 20 to be listed in the party lists.
If the rumors are true, the amendment of the Public Officials Election and Recall Law will deal devastating financial and political blows to small parties such as TSP, Jou said.
The new legislature to be elected under the new "single-member constituency, two ballots" electoral system Jan. 12, 2008 will comprise 73 regional seats, 6 seats for aboriginals, with the remaining 34 seats to be filled from party lists. The 34 legislators-at-large will be elected from the lists of political parties in proportion to the number of votes won by each party that obtains at least 5 percent of the total vote cast in the election.
The more established parties should nurture emerging political forces to cultivate a sound democratic environment, former CEC Chairman Huang Shih-cheng said, adding that currently political parties placed their own benefit above the welfare of the people and the country.
"I would blatantly say that they are not real political parties. They are gangs. And why would people pay taxes to subsidize gangs? " Huang asked.
Taiwan needs to make up its mind to determine what is the best electoral system for the country, said Pan Han-shen, Secretary-General of Green Party Taiwan, another smaller political party. Pan said that most European electoral systems, which are dominated by proportional systems, stress negotiation and consensus-seeking while the American system is more like a "cowboys' dual."
"Taiwan has to know what it wants to be, " Pan said.