Taipei, March 10 (CNA) Foreign representative offices have confirmed that none of Taiwan's presidential and vice presidential candidates hold U.S. or Japanese citizenship, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said Monday.
A third country, the United Kingdom, is expected to give an answer on whether any of the candidates hold British citizenship within two or three days, CEC Secretary-General Teng Tien-yu said.
The CEC sent inquiries -- via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) -- to the U.S., UK and Japanese representative offices in Taiwan on Feb.25 to verify whether the candidates had held citizenship in their respective countries since Jan. 27, 2008, the registration date for this year's presidential election.
According to the law, foreign nationals or Taiwanese citizens with foreign nationalities are ineligible to run for high-level public office.
The four candidates -- ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh and his running mate Su Tseng-chang, and opposition Kuomintang (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou and his running mate Vincent Siew -- authorized the CEC to conduct the inquiry and provided personal information to help with the task.
None of them were Japanese citizens because of the nature of Japanese immigration regulations.
Under Japan's immigration law, individuals are required to abandon their original nationalities before applying for Japanese citizenship, the CEC said, citing a statement it received from the Interchange Association, Japan's representative office in Taiwan.
All four candidates hold Taiwanese citizenship, the CEC said, and therefore the stipulation ruled out the possibility that they are also citizens of Japan, the CEC said.
The CEC also stated that according to the response it received from the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) , none of the four candidates have U.S. citizenship based on American citizenship and immigration records.
AIT officials authorized to speak on the matter were not available for comment Monday afternoon.
The UK's representative office in Taiwan, the British Trade and Cultural Office (BTCO), would not comment on individual cases, said Phil Ellis, head of the BTCO's political and economic team.
Hsieh's camp has challenged his rival over the U.S. permanent residence status, or "green card, " Ma obtained in 1977.
Contending that the green card remains valid, Hsieh has questioned Ma's integrity and loyalty to Taiwan, but the KMT candidate said his green card was invalidated in the mid-1980s after he returned to Taiwan.
The CEC did not ask the U.S. about the permanent residence status of the candidates, however, because Taiwan's election law does not cover candidates' foreign residence status, Teng said.