KMT pushes for adoption of absentee voting system

The KMT is pushing for the establishment of an absentee voting system in Taiwan to make it more convenient for overseas citizens to vote. The party hopes to have the system ready for the year-end Taipei and Kaohsiung mayoral elections.

KMT Wu Ching-ji (吳清基) said yesterday that the party will hold public hearings to encourage discussion about the issue and press the government to amend the country's election laws.

Taiwanese have to return to the constituency in which their registered address is located to vote, even if they do not live there.

Wu absentee voting would protect the rights of Taiwanese businessmen who are struggling overseas for Taiwan's economy and citizens who cannot come home to vote because of their physical condition, work, studies or high transport costs.

He said there were 800,000 Taiwanese businessmen and their relatives living in China that would benefit from such a system.

"The spirit of absentee balloting is to protect a basic human right, and it has long become a common practice around the globe," Wu said.

According to Wu, scores of countries have adopted the system, including Britain, Germany and Malaysia.

Neighboring Japan and South Korea have allowed absentee voting for years, Wu said.

Taiwan, as a democratic country, should stop overlooking the rights of overseas Taiwanese businessmen and other expatriates, he said.

Commenting the KMT's proposal yesterday, DPP lawmaker Lin Cho-shui (林濁水) said an absentee voting system was technically feasible but that it was only suitable for countrywide elections such as the presidential race, rather than local elections.

Lin said that absentee voting should not apply to citizens with dual nationality.

Wu that absentee voting would benefit voters in Taiwan by reducing social costs and boosting competitiveness.

With Taiwan becoming more and more urbanized and modernized, people have increasingly opted to leave their hometowns to work in the cities, and their places of residence are not necessarily where their households are registered, Wu pointed out.

To come home to vote, people have to spend time and money on the journey, Wu said.

For example, he said, of the total of 15 million eligible voters for the 2000 presidential election, 2.3 million, or 15 percent, did not live at their registered addresses.

Wu concerns that absentee voting would lead to increased election fraud, saying Tai-wan had already established electoral impartiality.

The present political culture left no room for electoral authorities to manipulate votes, Wu said, and advanced computer-aided facilities have reduced errors to almost zero.