Taipei government passes referendum law for the city

The Taipei City Government yesterday passed a referendum law during a municipal meeting and will submit it to the city council for review by the end of the month.

Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) emphasized that a referendum demonstrates the people's right to participate in politics and the government needs to "give it back to citizens."

"I have been supporting the idea of a referendum law. But I do not agree with a referendum law without a source of law," Ma said after the meeting.

"Most importantly, the referendum has to be launched by people rather than the government. The government by no means should interfere with it," he said.

Because the city council has been urging the city government to submit a referendum law that is different from that of the pan-blue and pan-green camps in the Legislative Yuan, the Bureau of Civil Affairs and the Law and Regulation Commission worked on the draft bill with several legal experts for weeks.

"The city's version aims to make up for the inadequacy of the representative system of government and is more complete than that of the central government," bureau Director Samuel Wu (吳秀光) said.

Wu said that there are four features of the city's proposed referendum law.

First, the city's version will list the issues that cannot be voted upon in a referendum.

Second, the city's referendums would not be held in conjunction with election campaigns in order to ensure that the focus of the referendum issues will not be confused with other issues.

Third, the result of the city referendums would be legally binding.

In other words, Wu said, the city will not hold "advisory referendums" such as the central government has proposed.

Fourth, the city will only hold city-wide referendums, Wu said,not district-wide ones.

Law and Regulation Commission Director Chen Ching-hsiu (陳清秀) said that the biggest difference between the city's proposed referendum law and that of the central government lies in the referendum procedures.

He said a proposed issue raised by city residents would have to be submitted to the city council for review first.

If the city council agrees with the proposal, it will enact related laws to meet the residents' demands and then there would be no need for the referendum, he said.

If the residents' proposal, however, is not passed by the city council, then it could be decided by a referendum, Chen said.

Chen said issues involving the city budgets, taxes, personnel matters or social welfare could not be referendum topics.

When asked whether the issue of Taiwan's independence could be a city referendum topic, Ma said the referendum law would regulate the range of the issues, and that was all he could say on the matter.

"Basically, what is regulated in the Constitution cannot be decided in a [city] referendum," Ma said.

But the comments by Ma and Chen drew criticism from a senior reporter and political commentator during yesterday's municipal meeting.

"The city's version places too many restrictions on the people," said Chen King-lan (程金蘭).

"Compared to the government, the people are a disadvantaged minority," Chen King-lan said.

"The government should not design a referendum law that is aimed at hindering the people's ability to exercise their rights," the reporter said.

"I do not see the city government's sincerity but its lack of belief in the people," Chen King-lan said.