Six more referendums are set to be held on Nov. 24 alongside the nine-in-one local elections after passing the Central Election Commission’s final review, the commission said yesterday, adding that all forged signatures found in the petitions would be reported to prosecutors so that criminal charges could be brought.
One referendum proposes scrapping the planned coal-fired Shenao Power Plant (深澳電廠) and another keeping the import ban on food products from five Japanese prefectures imposed following the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster — both proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) — while two referendums address opposing same-sex marriage, one referendum banning education on homosexuality at elementary and junior-high schools, and one renaming the national sports team to “Taiwan” instead of “Chinese Taipei” for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Signatures using the names of people passed away before the signing date have been found in the submissions of all six proposals and since they were clearly forged, the commission said it has decided to report all of them to prosecutors based on Article 241 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法).
The commission has said that the same standards and process for dealing with forgery would be applied to all referendum proposals.
Of the six referendums, the proposal to keep the ban on Japanese food products was found to contain the highest percentage of signatures using dead people’s names, with 11,534 signatures using dead people’s names and 72,810 apparently forged signatures.
A total of 10 referendums are expected to be held on Nov. 24.
The other three are a proposal to pass amendments to the Civil Code to legalize same-sex marriage; a proposal for mandatory education on relationships, sex and homosexuality at elementary and junior-high schools; and a proposal to abolish the government’s plan for phasing out nuclear power.
Additional reporting by Ann Maxon
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
TIT-FOR-TAT: The US allegedly revoked the visa of a Chinese national working at Xinhua News Agency in the US in response to Beijing’s expulsion of Vivian Wang The Presidential Office yesterday condemned China for expelling a New York Times correspondent from Beijing following the newspaper’s interview with President William Lai (賴清德), saying the move highlighted Beijing’s suppression of press freedom and its threat to international news media. Taiwan has noted a series of recent incidents in which Beijing used similar tactics to “threaten and pressure international media outlets and journalists,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement. “This concerns not only press freedom and freedom of expression, but also the safety of journalists, and Taiwan and relevant partners are paying close attention to the situation,” she
RSS