Hsinchu City mayor Lin Chih-chien recently announced that he would not run for reelection. This is due to a controversial proposal to merge Hsinchu county and Hsinchu city and upgrade it to be a special municipality. To pave the way for greater Hsinchu to be upgraded, an amendment to the Local Government Act will be deliberated on Wednesday and Thursday. The DPP hopes to complete deliberation by the end of week, so the bill can be voted on in the next legislative session. Besides Hsinchu, Changhua County is also eyeing the bill''s passage so that it may also be in the running for an upgrade.

On Jan. 19 and 20, the Legislative Yuan is scheduled to deliberate an amendment to the Local Government Act. The DPP caucus hopes to complete deliberation on the item by the end of the week.

Hung Meng-kai
Legislator (KMT)
If the DPP forces the amendment of the Local Government Act during the extraordinary session, the people would find that quite unacceptable. If the merger of Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County were so important, then why has the issue never been raised over the past five years given DPP''s majority in the legislature? And now that elections are coming up in less than a year, the DPP wants to force it through?

Hsu Chih-chieh
Legislator (DPP)
The merger is what citizens of greater Hsinchu want. Orginally, even Commissioner Yang Wen-ke of the KMT supported the proposal. But the KMT discredited the proposal, calling it a scheme to get a DPP member elected, so Yang had no choice but to change his stance, and now Lin Chih-chien 林智堅has also announced he''s no longer running for Hsinchu mayor.

If the bill passes the Internal Administration Committee''s deliberation by the end of the week, it may pass the third and final reading by late-February at the earliest. In addition to greater Hsinchu, Changhua County in Central Taiwan is also seeking an upgrade to become a special municipality. Two conditions must be fulfilled by municipalities seeking an upgrade: one, its population must exceed 1.25 million, and two, the region must have special needs to develop politically, economically, culturally as a metropolitan area. With a population of 1.29 million, Changhua County already meets the first requirement. The two municipality upgrade proposals could be reviewed at the same legislative session. At the earliest, Changhua''s application could undergo substantive deliberation by late-March.

Chao Tien-lin
Legislator (DPP)
Changhua County''s population is big enough to establish itself as a special municipality. But of course, the population alone is not enough for upgrading. The latest amendment to the Local Government Act doesn''t seem to be directly connected to Changhua.

Since upgrading Changhua County has already gained bipartisan support in the region, what''s left is the stamp of approval from the interior ministry. However, it seems unlikely that the upgrade will be complete before the year-end nine-in-one local elections.