‘SHACKLED’:The former DPP chairman said it was everybody’s political right to run for president, but a signature requirement was an insurmountable barrier
By Chris Wang / Staff Reporter
Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Shih Ming-teh (施明德), who has broken ties with the party, yesterday called for an amendment to an election law to relax the registration threshold for presidential and vice presidential candidates.
The signature requirement — an alternative way for candidates not affiliated with a party to register — should be scrapped so independent presidential aspirants could run because it is a constitutionally protected right, Shih said.
Shih said it would take at least NT$100 million (US$3.38 million) just to register as a candidate, including a NT$15 million deposit, a NT$40 million signature collection campaign and another NT$40 million for promotion and advertisements.
About 258,000 signatures — 1.5 percent of the total number of voters in the latest legislative election — are required for registration in the presidential election, according to the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法).
However, a deposit of NT$15 million is a reasonable “filter” to screen out trivial aspirants, Shih said, describing the requirement as a “handcuff.”
“However, the signature rule is like shackles that limit citizens’ political rights, and that is not right,” he said.
Shih called on President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), which enjoys a majority in the legislature, to “immediately” work on the amendment.
Responding to press queries, the 70-year-old was vague on whether he would enter the -presidential race, saying that he would not join the race today, but that “nothing is certain beyond that point.”
Shih visited the KMT and DPP caucuses as well as Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) to garner support for the proposed amendment after his press conference, with Wang telling him that it might be too late to amend the law for the approaching presidential election, which will take place on Jan. 14.