The Executive Yuan’s Referendum Review Committee yesterday again turned down a referendum proposal by the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) on the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), despite a ruling by the Supreme Administrative Court last month that said the committee must review the application.
“With a nine-to-three vote, the committee has decided to reject the TSU’s proposed referendum on whether the government should sign the ECFA with China based on two major reasons,” committee chairman Chao Yung-mau (趙永茂) said after he walked out of a four-hour meeting.
“The first reason is that the question asked in the referendum and the contents of the petition for the referendum are contradictory, and second, the Referendum Act (公民投票法) stipulates that issues related to tariffs and taxation cannot be decided in a referendum,” he said.
Photo: CNA
He said the TSU’s referendum proposal asks whether voters agree that the government should have signed the ECFA with China, while in the petition, the TSU asked voters whether they agree with the actual contents of the ECFA that the government signed with China in 2010.
Asked whether the committee has violated the ruling of the Supreme Administrative Court by rejecting the referendum proposal, Chao said he did not think so.
“The Supreme Administrative Court wanted us to do two things — to hold public hearings on the referendum and to review the proposal. We did both,” Chao said.
Two years ago, when the Referendum Review Committee turned down the TSU’s referendum proposal on the same issue, the party filed a lawsuit against the committee, questioning the legitimacy of its decision.
Last month, the Supreme Administrative Court handed down its final ruling, which required the committee to make up for some missed steps.
Before the meeting started at 9:30am, about 30 to 40 supporters of the TSU, led by TSU Secretary-General Lin Chih-chia (林志嘉), rallied outside the meeting venue, urging the committee to pass the referendum proposal.
The Referendum Act stipulates that a proposal, after completing the first stage by collecting the signatures of 0.5 percent of the number of people eligible to vote in the previous presidential election, must obtain the approval of the Referendum Review Committee before it can proceed to the next stage, collecting signatures from 5 percent of those eligible to vote. It must then pass a second review before making it to polling stations.
TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) yesterday said his party would file an administrative suit against the commission over its rejection of the party’s proposed referendum on the ECFA.
Huang said the reasons the commission had given for rejecting it had already been ruled by the Supreme Administrative Court as illegal, adding that the contents of the ECFA include commerce and the tertiary sector, which have no connection with issues about domestic tariffs.
“The commission’s reasons simply show that it is rejecting the TSU referendum for the sake of it,” Huang said.
“We will ask the Control Yuan to move for the impeachment of the nine members of the commission who voted to deny the party’s referendum proposal,” Huang said, adding that the party would pursue administrative action against the commission as soon as possible.
Additional reporting by CNA
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Taiwan shares the same values as those that fought in WWII, and nations must unite to halt the expansion of a new authoritarian bloc, Lai said The government yesterday held a commemoration ceremony for Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, joining the rest of the world for the first time to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Taiwan honoring V-E Day signifies “our growing connections with the international community,” President William Lai (賴清德) said at a reception in Taipei on the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. One of the major lessons of World War II is that “authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy and greater inequality,” Lai said. Even more importantly, the war also taught people that “those who cherish peace cannot
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
The Philippines yesterday criticized a “high-risk” maneuver by a Chinese vessel near the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) in a rare incident involving warships from the two navies. The Scarborough Shoal — a triangular chain of reefs and rocks in the contested South China Sea — has been a flash point between the countries since China seized it from the Philippines in 2012. Taiwan also claims the shoal. Monday’s encounter took place approximately 11.8 nautical miles (22km) southeast” of the Scarborough Shoal, the Philippine military said, during ongoing US-Philippine military exercises that Beijing has criticized as destabilizing. “The Chinese frigate BN 554 was
US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer began talks with high-ranking Chinese officials in Switzerland yesterday aiming to de-escalate a dispute that threatens to cut off trade between the world’s two biggest economies and damage the global economy. The US delegation has begun meetings in Geneva with a Chinese delegation led by Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰), Xinhua News Agency said. Diplomats from both sides also confirmed that the talks have begun, but spoke anonymously and the exact location of the talks was not made public. Prospects for a major breakthrough appear dim, but there is
RSS