Weighing referendum rules
On April 11, the Cabinet approved a proposal to amend the Referendum Act (公民投票法) by adding a requirement for proposers and signatories to provide their telephone number and attach photocopies of their identity cards. The Cabinet has now submitted this proposal to the legislature, but opposition parties are against the bill and have been obstructing legislative committee meetings.
Requiring copies of IDs would be a hindrance for referendum initiators, known as “leading proposers,” when they are on the streets recruiting supporters.
However, signatures gathered for past referendums have included those of dead people. Although this is forgery, it is hard to track down the culprits and hold them accountable.
For these reasons, some people are for the proposed amendments, while others are against them.
The ID requirement would not eliminate fraud, but it would increase the risk of personal data leaks. This is the main reason that the Legislative Yuan’s Organic Laws and Statutes Committee has not endorsed the bill, saying that the right thing to do would be to get on with the task of creating an electronic signature system.
When submitting income tax payments, people can now choose from among several electronic identification methods. The system has proved convenient.
Judging from this experience, it would not be difficult to establish an electronic signature system for proposing and signing referendums. To more effectively prevent fraud, it would only need a function to check whether there is a record of a signatory having proposed or signed a referendum. That would be much more efficient and reliable than the current way of checking.
Some might say that there are concerns about data security, but is that not equally true of the current system and the proposed new one?
Taiwan should not dither about resolving technical problems or use them as an excuse for obstructing the implementation of referendums.
Lee Ji-sheng
New Taipei City
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