Lawmaker questions if bird flu constitutes ‘force majeure’

“Don’t try to threaten our people with a bird flu epidemic,” Ting warned Hou.

Teng was grilled at the judicial committee meeting.

Opposition legislators took Teng to task for planning to add “forces majeures” to grave national disasters as excuses for deferring or calling off the elections.

“We understand the CEC wants to do so, should such events occur on election days,” said Kuomintang lawmaker Pan Wei-kang. “What are those forces majeures?” she questioned Teng.

The question is necessary, Pan added, simply because the Cabinet spokesman, Shieh Jhy-wei, declared the elections would be suspended if a two-stop distribution of blank ballots was adopted in 18 localities for the two national elections.

That is one of the DPP’s dirty tricks, Pan argued.

Founded under the Executive Yuan or Cabinet in 1982, the CEC is in charge of holding and supervising elections, national as well as local.

Under pressure from President Chen Shui-bian, the CEC decided to call four referendums alongside the two elections. The ruling party hopes to have a larger turnout to help win them.

The CEC wants a one-stop distribution adopted across the nation. A voter is expected to get all ballots in one stop at the polling station.

Local election commissions in 18 counties and cities, including Taipei, have decided to let voters receive ballots in two stops.

Teng refused to respond. But he promised to make a clarification by next Jan. 12.

“Forces majeures are a legal term,” Teng said. “There must be a definition,” he continued, adding: “it’s not what the CEC can have a last say on.

“It’s up to local commissions to make a report on what happens and the report will have to be considered by the CEC, which then takes a decision. It’s not the CEC that defines a force majeure.”

Another opposition lawmaker, Lee Fu-tien of the People First Party, cited election law as saying local commissions may, when forces majeures occur, change the dates for an election.

“That means the CEC can’t call off or suspend the elections nationwide if one or two local commissions make such reports,” Lee said.

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