News of the Week (Nov. 22-28,2007)

News of the Week

(Nov. 22-28, 2007)

1.On Nov. 22, Chang Cheng-hsiung, Chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC), said to the rank-and-file election affairs workers in a threatening tone, “The CEC is the competent government agency governing Presidential and legislative elections affairs. If the rank-and-file election affairs workers don’t comply with CEC’s resolution on the ‘One-Stop’ voting system, they will be subject to punishment for violating Public Functionaries Service Act, the Public Functionaries Evaluation Act and Public Functionaries Discipline Act.”

2.Taipei City Election Committee passed a resolution on Nov. 22 to adopt the “Two-Stop” voting system for legislative and Presidential elections tied to plebiscites. Samuel Wu, Taipei Deputy Mayor and Chairman of Taipei City Central Election Committee, said, “If the ‘Two-Stop’ voting system were against the Constitution and law, then President Chen Shui-bian would be an illegal President because the ‘Two-Stop’ voting system was adopted in the 2004 Presidential election”

3.On Nov. 25, KMT Presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou said, “Whether an election is null and void is a matter that should be brought up in court by election candidates or the prosecution and then be decided by judges. President Chen is not an emperor. His words are not everything. Never mind the words uttered by President Chen when he was emotionally unstable.”

Ma also challenged DPP Presidential candidate Frank Hsieh by saying, “Hsieh should not avoid problems. Instead of hiding himself behind President Chen, he should express his own opinions. That’s not something a Presidential candidate should do.”

4. On Nov. 22, Director-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS), Executive Yuan, lifted the third quarter GDP growth to 6.92%, the highest in three years. GDP growth rate for the whole year was also revised up to 5.46% from 4.58%, the second highest figure since the DPP gained power in 2000.

KMT Vice Presidential candidate Vincent Siew said on Nov. 23, “When economic growth rates are up, people should be expected to see increases in their incomes and be enjoying greater levels of consumption. However, in fact, have real incomes increased? The reality is that consumer consumption is going down. There is a wide gap between reality and government economic figures. DGBAS’s economic figures are fairy tale numbers fabricated for the elections.”

Attachment : none