US embassy cable - 05TAIPEI4061

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 TAIPEI 004061 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE PASS AIT/W 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, TW 
SUBJECT: TAIWAN GEARS UP FOR ITS FIRST EVER "THREE-IN-ONE" 
ELECTION 
 
 
1.  (SBU) Summary:  Taiwan will hold its first island-wide 
comprehensive local election on December 3.  With steadily 
declining voter turnout in recent years due to voter fatigue 
over Taiwan's frequent elections, the government decided to 
combine voting for county magistrates/city mayors, 
county/city councilors, and township/village chiefs.  The 
ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) pushed the reform 
in an effort to reduce both costs and voter fatigue, despite 
predictions that the reform would benefit the opposition 
Kuomintang Party (KMT) more than the DPP, and in the face of 
internal DPP opposition because of this expectation.  Though 
the official deadline for candidate registration is October 
4, political parties have already made and publicized their 
candidate nominations.  The three-in-one initiative should 
encourage increased voter turnout, as voting in county 
magistrate and city mayor elections has traditionally been 
high.  End Summary. 
 
Why Three-In-One? 
----------------- 
 
2.  (U) Yu Ming-hsien, Director of the Central Election 
Commission (CEC) Election Administration Division told AIT 
that Taiwan will hold its first ever "three-in-one" combined 
local election on Saturday, December 3.  Previously, 
officials at the town, city, and county levels were elected 
in two tranches:  one election normally in December for 
county magistrates and city mayors, and another in January 
for to elect county/city council members and township/village 
chiefs.  The CEC, Yu explained, decided to consolidate these 
two elections primarily to reduce the cost and frequency of 
elections as well as to reduce voter fatigue.  The December 
election is referred to as "three-in-one" because officials 
are elected to three different levels of office:  (1) county 
magistrates/city mayors, (2) county/city councilors, and (3) 
township/village chiefs. 
 
Political Resistance to Change 
------------------------------ 
 
3.  (SBU) Yu told AIT that the CEC met some political 
resistance in moving to the new election format.  At the 
local level, many county magistrates and city mayors were 
opposed because there would be no sitting local officials to 
support their campaigns.  DPP magistrates and mayors, in 
particular, opposed this change because they believe Pan-Blue 
candidates will benefit more from the change.  Most 
eventually accepted the reforms because of DPP central party 
support for the change and perhaps also because of the 
obvious cost savings of the reform. 
 
4.  (SBU) When Premier Frank Hsieh first announced the 
three-in-one change in February 2005, DPP Chairman Su 
Tseng-chang and his supporters immediately and publicly 
 
SIPDIS 
rejected the change.  Su supporters at the time told AIT that 
they saw this as an early Hsieh move to disadvantage Su's 
2008 presidential nomination prospects, by reducing Su's 
visibility to just one three-in-one election.  The 
unprecedented low voter turnout of 23 percent in the May 14 
National Assembly election, however, reignited the drive to 
reform the Taiwan election system.  With little internal DPP 
opposition, the CEC in June announced the three-in-one 
election. 
 
5.  (SBU) Yu told AIT that the three-in-one election will 
probably benefit Pan-Blue parties, because these parties, 
especially the KMT, are well-organized and entrenched at the 
grassroots level, where the majority of elected officials are 
Pan-Blue. 
 
What's at Stake? 
---------------- 
 
6.  (U) The election will include voting for 18 county 
magistrates and 5 city mayors (excluding Taipei City and 
Kaohsiung City, which will hold elections in December 2006); 
county and city councilors; and village and township mayors 
island-wide.  The county magistrate and mayoral elections at 
stake, the most important of the three tiers of elections, 
are widely viewed as a prelude to the 2007 Legislative Yuan 
and 2008 Presidential elections. 
 
7.  (U) Although the three elections will now occur on the 
same day, their four-year terms of office will remain 
staggered.  While designating election day is a relative 
simple administrative adjustment, office terms can only be 
changed by amending local laws.  Thus, county magistrates and 
city mayors will assume office on December 20, while council 
members and township/village chiefs will take office on March 
1. 
 
Election Schedule, Procedure and Nominations 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
8.  (U) Official candidate registration was scheduled for 
Sept 30 - Oct 4, but the deadline has been extended in some 
areas due to Typhoon Longwang, which struck Taiwan on October 
2.  Political parties, however, have already publicly 
announced their candidates.  After the registration deadline, 
Yu told AIT, candidate lists cannot be changed.  Although 
unofficial candidate lists will be available in the media 
immediately after the close of registration, the central and 
local election commissions will not finish verifying 
candidate qualifications until November 1.  Voting will take 
place on Saturday, December 3, 08:00-16:00, with each voter 
given three separate ballots, one each for each of the three 
elections.  Ballots for city county magistrates and city 
mayors will be counted first, followed by those for council 
members, and then those for township and village mayors. 
Unofficial results will probably be available by 22:00 that 
evening, with certified results published on December 8. 
 
Campaign Finance and Voter Turnout 
---------------------------------- 
 
9.  (U) Campaign spending limits for each election are 
calculated according to the population of the election 
district.  According to Yu, however, these limits are openly 
flouted and amounts reported are widely fudged.  There is not 
even a requirement for reporting campaign contributions. 
 
10. (U) Yu told AIT that Taiwan has historically exhibited 
high voter turnout in county magistrate and city mayor 
elections, so the three-in-one election would probably not 
have a major impact on voter turnout.  Still, he 
acknowledged, the new format would undoubtedly increase voter 
numbers somewhat.  Given Taiwan voters' high interest in 
local elections, Yu continued, voter turn-out on December 3 
could be as high as 70 percent, or even higher. 
 
Other Election-Related Reforms 
------------------------------ 
 
11.  (U) The Executive Yuan (EY) has drafted legislation to 
be submitted to the Legislative Yuan (LY) sometime this Fall 
that would abolish township and village elections altogether, 
replacing them with political appointments.  The DPP, which 
is less organized at the local level, supports this change, 
while the highly organized KMT opposes and will likely use 
its majority control of the LY to block the change in order 
to preserve KMT dominance at the township/village level. 
 
Role of the CEC 
------------------ 
 
12.  (U) The CEC is responsible for administering all Taiwan 
elections.  It oversees two provincial election commissions 
(Taiwan and Fujian, the latter including Kinmen and Matsu 
islands), below each of which are city and county election 
commissions.  Yu told AIT the CEC is considering merging with 
the two provincial committees to reduce redundancy.  CEC 
members are nominated by the Premier and appointed by the 
President, leaving it open to charges of partisanship by the 
opposition.  Charging that the CEC has been biased since the 
2004 presidential election, the KMT has expressed concern 
that CEC partisanship will influence the LY redistricting 
process, adversely affecting the KMT's LY election prospects 
in 2007.  Yu insisted to AIT that these charges are 
unfounded, pointing to CEC support for the three-in-one 
election despite benefiting the Pan-Blue opposition. 
 
13.  (U) The CEC maintains a web site at www.cec.gov.tw that 
has information on Taiwan's election laws and links to local 
election committees and historic election data.  The 
information on the English version of the site is limited. 
PAAL