The Cabinet and the Central Election Commission (CEC) are jockeying over who has the final say on the referendum following the Cabinet's approval of the two questions proposed by President Chen Shui-bian (
Citing the Referendum Law (
The CEC held a monthly meeting yesterday to discuss the country's first national referendum, scheduled to be held in conjunction with the presidential election on March 20.
Rai Hau-min (
"Why don't they just abolish the Central Election Commission if they don't respect our professionalism and think that we cannot do the job," Rai told reporters during a break in the meeting.
Wu Feng-shan (
"If you read the law carefully, not a single article states that the Cabinet has the right to tell us what to do," Wu said.
Minister without Portfolio Hsu Chih-hsiung (
"The law clearly stipulates that the Cabinet is the supervisory body of the referendum while the Central Election Commission is the executing agency," Hsu said. "If we cannot oversee what they do, who can?"
Despite commission members' complaints, the Cabinet yesterday told the CEC to print the two questions of the referendum on two separate ballots and in two different colors.
Voters would also be asked to mark an "O" to the left of the answer to "agree" or an "X" to "disagree." Voters must cast the two ballots in two different ballot boxes, Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (
Responding to the complaints of individual commission members, Lin said the Cabinet respected their freedom of speech and would further study the situation.
"There's no doubt that the Cabinet has the authority to command and oversee the commission in holding the referendum according to the Referendum Law," Lin said. "Although we respect their professional opinion, individual commission members' views cannot override the final decision of the Cabinet."
According to Lin, voters can pick up only one ballot instead of all three.
"While we hope all voters exercise their right of direct democracy, we totally respect their individual liberty," Lin said. "The bottom line is that voters have to cast their ballot if they decide to pick up the vote at the poll."
Lin also explained why the Cabinet eventually decided to print the two questions on two separate ballots instead of the original plan of printing them on a single ballot.
"Our thinking is that this would minimize the trouble of tallying ballots because we don't have to worry about whether the ballot is a valid or invalid one if the voter decides to answer only one of the two referendum questions," Lin said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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