New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu has proposed putting a possible constitutional amendment to adopt a parliamentary system to a public vote in 2016 to coincide with the next presidential election.
Lawmakers have been pushing the idea of amending the constitution to address issues such as lowering the voting age, streamlining the government, and possibly even modifying the current semi-presidential system that sees power shared between a popularly elected head of state and his appointed premier.
Chu is widely tipped as the forerunner in next month’s election for a new chairman of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT). On Saturday he said the ruling and opposition parties can have in-depth discussions about what kind of government system is more suitable for Taiwan.
In addition to proposing a parliamentary system, Chu also said the voting age should be lowered from the current 20 to 18.