The Executive Yuan's Referendum Review Committee late last night voted down the Taiwan Solidarity Union's (TSU) request to hold a referendum on the government's proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China. The vote, which was announced shortly before 11pm, was 12-4.
The TSU's application requested a referendum on the question: “Do you agree that the government should sign an ECFA with China?”
“The reason stated for the referendum proposal is to ask if the government has the right to sign an ECFA. However, the question asked in the proposal is about the contents of an ECFA, which is different from the stated reason,” Referendum Review Committee Chairman Chao Yung-mau (趙永茂) told a press conference after the five-hour meeting.
PHOTO: CNA
The committee had convened at 6pm.
Chao said a referendum proposal should be aimed at changing the status quo, but the government would not have to take any action to change its policy, even if the proposed referendum had passed, because of the wording — asking whether voters agree with the government’s plan to sign an ECFA.
“The referendum proposal, therefore, does not meet the qualification of ‘approving a government policy,’ as stated in the Referendum Act (公民投票法),” he said.
The TSU may appeal the decision, he said.
The committee has 21 members, but only 19 attended the meeting. As chairman, Chao did not vote because he presided over the meeting, while committee member Arthur Ding (丁仁方) left before the vote. Of the 17 members who voted, one cast a blank vote.
The four committee members who voted in favor of the proposal were Yang Wan-ying (楊婉瑩), Chen Tun-yuan (陳敦源), Kuo Lin-yung (郭林勇) and Chen Miao-fen (陳妙芬).
“The referendum proposal asks whether the government should sign an ECFA with China. It is certainly asking for the people’s approval on a major policy, which meets the criteria of the right to hold a referendum as granted by the Constitution,” the four said in a written statement.
The committee's rejection was immediately criticized by TSU Chairperson Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝), who said the committee had no right to write off a referendum proposal supported by more than 200,000 people.
The TSU said it would immediately begin preparations for another referendum proposal, but gave no details.
“An ECFA has to be put to a public vote,” Huang said. “If Ma, as a popularly elected president, doesn’t listen to the public, he will pay the price politically.”
“If an ECFA would benefit Taiwan as the government says, why is Ma afraid of putting this proposal to a public vote? What is he afraid of?” Huang said.
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) had previously said the government respects the people's right to referendums, as long as they are held legally and constitutionally. However, the TSU initiative did not meet those requirements, since the content of the proposed pact has not been announced, he said.
Huang also said the TSU would prepare an initiative for a referendum asking voters to dismiss the review committee, saying the committee did not have the moral authority to make decisions about a right protected by the Constitution.
In addition, the TSU would investigate the possibility of holding a referendum on revising the Referendum Act, which sets an unfairly high threshold for referendum questions to pass, he said.
The Referendum Act stipulates that a referendum proposal, after completing the first stage of collecting signatures from 0.5 percent of the number of people who were eligible to vote in the last presidential election, must obtain approval from the Referendum Review Committee before it can proceed to the next stage of collecting signatures from 5 percent of that same number. It must then pass a second review before making it to the polling stations.
Huang also hinted at Chinese involvement in the decision. He said the committee’s decision came after the government came under pressure from Chinese authorities.
A TSU source said the party still has about 100,000 signed petition forms left over from its initial application. A total of 86,000 signatures are needed to initiate a referendum process.
TSU officials said they would try and use the remaining forms to initiate another referendum proposal. However, it was not immediately clear whether the Referendum Review Committee would accept the forms because the law says the same referendum proposal cannot be submitted twice.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesman Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) said the committee decision was regrettable and raised concerns that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) had pressured committee members over their decision.
During the committee meeting at the Joint Central Government Officers Tower in Taipei, DPP lawmakers tried to break into the venue by climbing over the fence and metal gates surrounding the building. Police officers rushed to stop the lawmakers, triggering scuffles and clashes.
The lawmakers were able to breach the police’s first line of defense, but were stopped in front of the building’s glass doors. The police shut down elevators to prevent protesters from getting into the building through the underground parking garage and reaching the room on the 10th floor where the committee was deliberating.
Prevented from reaching the committee, the DPP lawmakers held a sit-down protest outside.
Lin said the DPP would most likely hold a provisional meeting this morning and issue a formal statement after it receives a copy of the committee’s decision.
The DPP’s event in support of a referendum on an ECFA, scheduled for Kaohsiung City’s Glory Pier tomorrow, will go ahead as planned.
FLIGHT RISK? The driver of the truck that slid onto the tracks, causing the crash, was released on NT$500,000 bail, but prosecutors have requested that he be detained Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday listed three priorities in response to the deadliest accident involving a Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) train in the past 40 years: rescuing the injured, clearing the single-track tunnel and assisting the families of the victims. Taroko Express No. 408, traveling from New Taipei City to Taitung on Friday morning, derailed as it entered the Cingshuei Tunnel (清水隧道) in Hualien’s Sioulin Township (秀林). Of the 496 people on board, including four TRA personnel, 51 had died and 188 were injured as of 7pm yesterday, after the train hit a crane truck that had slid down a slope
IN A HURRY: The 199,200 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine expire on May 31, so the CECC might expand vaccine eligibility, but distribution would begin in a week at the earliest The first batch of COVID-19 vaccines allocated to Taiwan through the COVAX global vaccine-sharing program arrived yesterday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said, adding that, after testing, it would be able to distribute them by Monday next week at the earliest. The 199,200 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine were shipped from Amsterdam on a China Airlines (中華航空) plane and arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 5:21am. After the cargo was examined and release procedures were completed at the airport, the Aviation Police Bureau escorted the vehicles carrying the vaccines to a cold chain storage facility. Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General
HEATED TRAFFIC: As Beijing holds naval drills near Taiwan, the Ministry of National Defense said it had a full grasp of the situation and would handle it ‘appropriately’ A Chinese carrier group exercising near Taiwan is part of what are to be regular drills, the Chinese navy said in a statement late on Monday, further escalating tensions between Taipei and Beijing. The group, including the aircraft carrier Liaoning, was conducting “routine” drills in the waters around Taiwan, a move to “enhance its capability to safeguard national sovereignty, safety and development interests,” the statement said. “Similar exercises will be conducted regularly,” it said, without elaborating. The statement came after the Ministry of National Defense earlier on Monday issued a statement regarding a rise in the number of incursions by Chinese jets into
AIMED AT TAIWAN? Institute for National Defense and Security Research research fellow Ou Si-fu said chips can be ‘bought off the shelf’ and then used in weapons The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday said that chips from Taiwanese semiconductor companies were not making their way into Chinese missiles “to the best of our knowledge.” A report in yesterday’s Washington Post alleged that a Chinese company named Phytium Technology Co (飛騰) used chips made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), along with US software, in advanced Chinese military systems. “TSMC has long placed strict controls on their chips. The export of high-tech products from Taiwan is also highly regulated,” Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) said. “According to our understanding, none of the end uses for those products
RSS