The government will smooth the way to honor holding the pledge by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to hold the referendum, an Executive Yuan official said yesterday.
"The government will carry out the referendum in compliance with the law and negate obstacles to the electorate for casting their first referendum ballots on March 20," said Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (
The referendum will be realized in compliance with law, even if the government fails to persuade the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) to support the "sacred plan," he added.
Lin's remarks were in response to the KMT and PFP's vow to resist the referendum announced by Chen on Friday.
KMT-PFP alliance members explicitly expressed their opposition to the proposed referendum yesterday, calling Chen's idea a violation of the Referendum Law (
The KMT-PFP alliance said they would petition for a constitutional interpretation and order pan-blue magistrates and mayors to boycott the referendum.
Lin called the opposition parties' statement an emotional reaction.
The Executive Yuan respected opposition parties' right of filing for a constitutional interpretation, while it will carry on communication with the two parties, Lin said.
But he explained that a boycott of the implementation of the referendum on the grounds of the constitutional interpretation still being in progress would be in violation of the Referendum Law.
In that event, the government must hold the referendum and overcome such a challenge through enforcement of the law, given that Chen initiated the defensive referendum based on his presidential power, in accordance with the law, Lin said.
"Taiwan is a nation of law and order. With the passage of the Referendum Law and administrative rules for holding the referendum that will be drafted by the Cabinet at a later stage, any further opposition to the referendum would be against public function and would be contrary to the law and administrative responsibility," Lin said.
The Cabinet spokesman also revealed that the Executive Yuan will need 26 days to finalize preparation for the referendum.
Lin said Chen should present the proposition, which requires the approval of a Cabinet meeting before it is referred to the Central Election Committee (CEC), the chief administration for referendum affairs, after the Lunar New Year.
He expected that the committee would start the preparatory procedures in early February.
CEC Chairperson George Huang (
The committee estimated that a referendum initiated by Chen would take less time to process, compared to other referendums proposed by voters.
The former needs no public debate or presentation before submission to the committee as a referendum topic.
The referendum taking place on the presidential election polling day and to be handled by the same polling station personnel will cost the nation about NT$200 million to NT$300 million, according to the CEC.
The expenses will be less than that of a referendum held on a separate occasion.
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