The Legislative Yuan on Tuesday confirmed the Cabinet’s nominations of Lee Chin-yung (???) and Chen Chao-chien (???) to return to their posts as chairman and vice chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC).
The four-year terms of six incumbent CEC members are set to expire on Nov. 3, and the Cabinet submitted a list of six nominees to fill those positions.
Of the nominees, who were initially approved by Legislative Yuan committees on Sept. 29, four are incumbents, including the CEC chairman and vice chairman, and two are new members.
In the vote conducted by secret ballot on Tuesday, 71 of the 113 Legislative Yuan members cast votes for the nominees while 42 were absent. The main opposition party, the Kuomintang, said its 38 lawmakers would not participate in the vote.
The opposition Taiwan People’s Party, with five lawmakers, and the New Power Party, with three members, said their members would vote but oppose the confirmation of Lee.
Lee is a veteran politician with the ruling Democratic Progressive Party who gave up his party membership after being nominated in early 2019 to head the CEC to maintain the appearance of neutrality.
He received 62 of the 71 votes that were cast, while Chen was confirmed by a 66-5 margin.
The two other incumbents, Chinese Culture University Department of Law Director Hsu Hui-feng (???) and lawyer Chen En-min (???) were confirmed by unanimous 71-0 votes.
The new nominees, Wang Yun-ju (???), a professor with National Chung Cheng University’s Department of Law, and lawyer Hsu Ya-fen (???) were also confirmed by unanimous consent.
The six confirmed members will serve four-year terms from Nov. 4, 2021 to Nov. 3, 2025.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel