The Council of the Political Yuan Council will pass a draft amendment to some provisions of the "Political Parties Law" today.

(file photo)

[Reporter Zhong Lihua/Taipei Report] The Executive Yuan Council will pass the amendment draft of some provisions of the "Political Party Law" today, which stipulates that political parties who violate the regulations can be jointly punished with a maximum fine of 1 million yuan; The "National Security Law" or the "Organized Crime Prevention Regulations" have been determined by the judgment to abolish the registration of political parties. Due to the excessive controversy and lack of consensus, after discussion, the relevant provisions will never be included in the revised draft of the Political Council version.

Officials explained that one of the key points of this amendment is to impose the responsibility of supervision on the leaders of political parties.

For political parties receiving statutory funds, they should be deposited in a special account of a financial institution opened in the name of the political party, annual financial reports should be reported according to law, and party members under the age of 16 should not be recruited. The person in charge of the political party should be responsible for supervision. If the political party violates the regulations , in addition to punishing political parties in accordance with regulations, the person in charge of the political party will be punished jointly with a fine of 20,000 to 1 million yuan.

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In order to avoid confusion about the role of the person in charge of a political party, the draft amendment stipulates that the person in charge of a political party shall not concurrently serve as the person in charge or an elector of another political party.

At the same time, in line with the revision of the age of majority in the civil law to 18 years old, the draft amendment also stipulates that the minimum age for the person in charge of a political party is 18 years old.

In addition, to put an end to empty-shell political parties and ensure that political parties can perform their functions, the draft amendments add that political parties should continue to recruit party members during their existence and maintain the number of party members with more than 100 members.

In addition, if the number of party members exceeds 300, party representatives must be elected and party members' congresses held to exercise the powers of the party members' congresses.

As well as the convening of party members' meetings or party members' congresses, party members or party members' representatives should attend in person, and if there are force majeure factors, exceptions can be made by video conference.

At the same time, in order to avoid profit-seeking, the revised draft also clearly stipulates that the rental of political party offices is prohibited. Violators will be fined from 100,000 yuan to 500,000 yuan. There is also a new requirement that 5% of the subsidy should be used to cultivate or promote single-gender political activities every year, so as to improve the opportunities and abilities of gender participation in politics.

With regard to the clause abolishing the registration of political parties, the official explained that the current dissolution of political parties is decided by the Constitutional Court composed of justices. The original draft amendment discussed was that the Ministry of the Interior can dissolve the party after deliberation and according to the seriousness of the circumstances. Judicial power can be changed to executive power. It was determined that the violation of the people's freedom of association guaranteed by the Constitution was highly controversial, so it was decided not to include it in the draft of the Council version.