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Election official begins
(Taiwan Headlines, Nov.20, 2001)
Source: News reports
The year-end election campaign for legislators, magistrates and mayors will officially start tomorrow, November 21) . Today, the ROC Central Election Commission (CEC) will issue a list of candidates, as well as formally declaring that the campaign will last from Nov. 21 to Nov. 30. The CEC says that starting from tomorrow election activity can only be held from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
In addition, the list of candidates for members of the fifth Legislative Yuan and the 14th round of elections for magistrates and mayors of all the counties and cities of Taiwan Province has been publicly displayed starting since November 15.
Yesterday was the deadline for village and borough (li) chiefs to report on the original rosters of officially registered residents and applications for changes, which the district administration offices of each rural township, township and city are to submit to local household registration offices for auditing and corrections. The number of voters will be published on Nov. 27.
CEC chairman Huang Shih-cheng is scheduled to post a public announcement on the Central Joint Office Building at 8:30 in the morning, declaring the official commencement of the election campaign.
The CEC notes that according to the Public Officials Election and Recall Law, during the legal campaign period, candidates, political parties or the third parties are forbidden to carry any campaign ads on radio and TV, or promote any candidates.
No electronic medium is allowed to produce programs with the election as its theme, or to broadcast campaign activities live. The CEC will entrust the ROC Government Information Office (GIO) to monitor all radio and TV stations. The GIO has issued a formal document asking local governments to strictly enforce related laws.
The GIO will also send personnel to every county and city to monitor networks and cable programs. Once a violation is discovered, the GIO will make an official announcement and transfer the case to the CEC for a ruling on the appropriate punishment.
Related punitive laws include the Radio and Television Law, the Cable Radio and Television Law and the Satellite Television Law. Penalties range from NT$30,000 to NT$1 million. Violators may also to be forced to stop broadcasting from three days to three months or even have their licenses revoked. Newspaper ads are not limited in this regard.
The CEC emphasizes that candidates should abide by campaign activity time restrictions, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. If candidates or parties go over the time limit, and they don't bring their activities to a conclusion after being urged to stop, they will be issued fines. Penalties range from NT$10,000 to NT$100,000.
In addition, a public forum will be held on TV in which candidates for the fifth legislature of Taipei City will be able to declare their political opinions. This year as in previous campaigns, the forum will be broadcast live on the public cause channel 77, starting tomorrow and lasting for three days. The Taipei City Election Commission states that all cable TV viewers are invited to watch it.
The CEC states that this year's official election candidate forums will start from 2:00 p.m. tomorrow. Every candidate has 15 minutes to present his or her case. The program will be aired between 2:00 pm and 7:30 or 8:30 p.m. every day through November 23. For details, please log onto the Taipei City Government Bureau of Civic Affairs web
site:www.ca.taipei.gov.tw
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