Use recent pictures in campaigns: TSU to candidates

By Wang Wen-hsuan and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writerr





A Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) legislator yesterday called for legal amendments requiring election candidates to use pictures taken within the previous six months in advertisements to let citizens see who is campaigning.

TSU Legislator Yeh Chin-ling (葉津鈴) said the current lack of restrictions allows many candidates to use pictures where they “looked better” and younger, or to Photoshop their campaign images, adding that a running joke refers to the vast differences perceived between an actual candidate and their pictures on the billboards.

“We hope to pass an amendment to Article No. 47 of the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) to prevent voter confusion,” she said.

People participating in a press conference yesterday organized by Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Yeh Chin-ling, center, in Taipei hold up examples of pictures used by election candidates. Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times

TSU Greater Kaohsiung city councilor candidate Hsiao Chi-nan (蕭吉南) said that if candidates all used pictures of themselves from 10 years ago, the “preservatives” causing candidates to appear eternally young would cause great confusion among voters.

All members of the TSU, no matter which generation they belong in, feel it is time Taiwanese elections are held to a higher standard and are thus calling for candidates across all parties to submit pictures that are at most six months old, Hsiao said.

The candidates should be open and honest — able to face voters with their true faces, Hsiao said.

However, the Central Election Commission responded by saying that forcing candidates to submit recent photographs would not have practical benefits.

Commission Deputy Vice Chairman Liu Yi-chou (劉義周) said that with modern technological advances, smartphones could be used to take photographs that could be altered at any time, adding that it was difficult to ascertain when a picture had been taken.

The photographs on election posters serve as one channel through which candidates introduce themselves to voters, and it is the candidates themselves who should take responsibility if there is a discrepancy between the picture and the reality, Liu said.

The election posters are propaganda made with public funding and should not be considered to share the same level as legal identification or passports, due to their different function, Liu said, adding that the practicality of such a move would not be too great.

However, the commission added that it would respect the legislators’ decision to propose an amendment.

Additional reporting by CNA