Both the ruling and opposition parties are discussing whether to combine the legislative election and the presidential election in 2012, which are only two months apart. The KMT and DPP have not yet come to a consensus, with the two sides now factoring in the elements that may possibly complicate the voting procedure.

The elections for the five special municipalities just concluded recently and another election campaign is to start soon in the second half of next year.

The issue of combining the legislator election in January and the presidential election in March of 2012 has been brought up again.

According to the Central Election Commission, the proposal will be finalized before June next year and the agency stressed that it is impossible to combine the two elections if the country's to push forward absentee voting.

Minister of Interior Chiang Yi-hua, who promotes absentee voting, says he would prepare for the amendment of relevant laws and regulation.

The advantage of combining the two elections is to save money and resources.

But both the ruling and the opposition parties have not yet reached an internal agreement.

For the KMT, the joint election can boost the turnout rate.

But the opposition party criticizes that the central government tries to influence two major elections at once with its resources.

For the opposition DPP, the election bid in Central and Southern Taiwan has been quite good, which can benefit the two elections.

However, the KMT questions that the DPP was against the combination of the two elections and its proposal now is simply for political gain.

As a matter of fact, the possible two-in-one election could impose most pressure on police force, which is already stressed over the shooting incidents that took place during the recently concluded election and the 2004 presidential election.

Constitution scholars say that the combination of the elections has to be done under the premise that the legislative term is not prolonged or it is unconstitutional.

So it only leaves the possibility of holding the presidential election earlier.

If the power changes again, it means there would be a long gap period that lasts four months.

These are the factors the administration should take into account.

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