Academic Degrees to Be Removed From Election Bulletin? 選舉公報刪除學歷項目 在程序委會被擋下

At the Procedure Committee, legislators continue to discuss the government's proposed amendment to the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act. One KMT legislator proposed to deprive people whose academic degrees were revoked due to suspected plagiarism and people with DUIs the right to run in elections.

Political parties are in a heated discussion over the Executive Yuan's latest proposed amendment to the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act. The amendment would prohibit people convicted of specific crimes, such as gun violence, drug dealing, election bribery, and national security offenses, from running in elections. The KMT legislative caucus recently proposes adding sexual offenders to the list. KMT legislator Lin Wei-chou further suggested prohibiting people whose academic degrees have been revoked and those who have been convicted of drinking under influence, to run in elections. A numerously signed petition has been sent to the Conference Department under the Legislative Yuan for review.

Lin Wei-chou, Legislator (KMT): “How long have you been lying to your voters? Is that not serious enough? If that (revocation of academic degrees) happens, then you should be banned from running in elections for life, because you have been lying to your voters.”

Meanwhile, DPP legislators Chung Chia-pin, Tsai Shih-ying, and Mark Ho proposed removing the political candidate's academic degrees from the election bulletin as part of the amendment. It sparked a controversial debate; other DPP legislators did not show support either during the procedure committee meeting.

Lo Chih-cheng, Legislator (DPP): “The DPP caucus was unaware (of the proposal). Second, this is an individual proposal. Thirdly, during the procedure committee meeting yesterday, when KMT legislators brought up the issue and thought the proposal was inappropriate, committee members on the DPP side did not disagree either. We decided to drop the case.”

Chiu Chen-yuan, TPP Legislative Caucus Whip: “We should examine the system as a whole and reflect. We shouldn't be covering up or removing academic degrees on the election bulletin, that's taking away citizens' rights to know.”

The Taiwan People's Party (TPP) also disapproves of the proposal, saying that's solving the problem in the wrong direction. Although DPP Legislator Chung emphasized that each candidate could still write about their academic background in the self-description, lawmakers are unconvinced. The proposal has been put on hold. 

選罷法排黑條款討論熱烈，行政院版本排除黑金槍毒國安等案件之後，國民黨立院黨團提出對案，新增排除性侵犯。國民黨立委林為洲更加碼兩點，學位涉嫌抄襲被撤銷，以及酒駕被判刑，都終身不得參選，已獲得連署成案送進議事處。

國民黨立委林為洲說道：「你已經騙選民騙多久了，這還不嚴重嗎。所以如果有這樣的情勢（學位撤銷），我覺得應該要終身不得參選，因為你過去一直在騙選民。」

學位議題延燒，不過民進黨立委鍾佳濱、蔡適應、何志偉等人最近提出排黑修法草案中，擬把選罷法中要求選舉公報列入學歷的項目刪除，引發爭議，20日立院程序委員會，自家立委也不支持。

民進黨立委羅致政表示：「黨團並不知情，第2這是個別委員的提案，第3昨天在程序委員會審查的時候，當國民黨委員提到這一點，認為不洽當之後，我們本黨的程序委員會委員也沒有反對，就讓它撤案了。」

民眾黨團總召邱臣遠提及：「應該要來去檢討的是整體機制的問題，而不是要在選舉公報上把相關的學歷來去做一個遮蔽，或是移除這樣的部分，其實是剝奪了人民知的權利。」

民眾黨也表達反對，認為是倒果為因。雖然鍾佳濱修法草案並非絕對刪除學歷，參選人還是可以把自己的學經歷放在政見相關欄位自我表述，但是各黨都沒有共識，全案暫緩協商。