Lawmakers yesterday passed an amendment to the Referendum Act (公民投票法) to decouple referendums from national elections.
The amended act stipulates that referendums are to be held on the fourth Saturday of August once every two years, starting in 2021.
The amendment was passed after lawmakers earlier in the day approved a proposal by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) and 66 others to hold a provisional session from yesterday through July 5 to review proposed amendments and laws.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
A procedural committee meeting was held at noon, followed by the first plenary session in the afternoon.
Plenary sessions are to be held today and tomorrow, with a second round of sessions to be held on Thursday, Friday and Thursday next week.
A third round is to be held on Friday next week and from July 1 to 5.
DPP lawmakers, who hold the legislative majority, ensured that voting at the committee meeting gave priority to dealing with proposed changes to the Referendum Act, the National Security Act (國家安全法), the Act for Industrial Innovation (產業創新條例), the Agricultural Products Market Transaction Act (農產品市場交易法) and the Food Administration Act (糧食管理法).
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general John Wu (吳志揚) had previously condemned the referendum bill’s advancement to the legislative floor after the DPP caucus on May 17 sent the proposal by DPP Legislator Chiang Chieh-an (蔣絜安) to a second reading without undergoing a committee review.
KMT lawmakers were holding a news conference on same-sex marriage bills at the time.
Chiang’s version included a clause that would have required people to present photocopies of their national ID cards when signing referendum petitions.
The requirement has faced opposition from several sectors of society, including the KMT, which has said it would be contravene democratic principles.
The DPP caucus had argued that the requirement would prevent bogus signatures and the names of dead people being used.
However, it agreed to remove the clause and said it would ask the Central Election Commission to deal with the issue of fake signatures, Ker said.
The commission should set up systems to identify and remove fake signatures, and to collect electronic signatures, he added.
Decoupling the referendums from national elections would help prevent a recurrence of long lines, slow voting and delayed results that occurred during the Nov. 24 elections last year, when 10 referendums were held alongside local elections, Ker said.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS