The Central Election Commission (CEC) will continue in its efforts to persuade Provincial Election Commission Chairman Chen Lung-chi (
Chen announced his decision to step down from the chairmanship on Thursday out of "concerns about not being able to accomplish the challenging tasks regarding ballot procedures and other voting affairs related to the referendum" on March 20.
Chen is the highest-ranking government official in charge of election affairs to submit a resignation notice since the Executive Yuan began the process to hold the referendum earlier this month.
Fielding questions at the Legislative Yuan, Huang said he and other CEC officials are communicating further with Chen, as well as with Miaoli County Election Commission Chairman Ku Cheng-ching (
Ku announced his resignation on Wednesday after days of wrangling over his proposal to separate referendum polling stations and those for the presidential election.
Ku made the proposal to the CEC for separate stations as a means of avoiding confusion, based on the notion that different laws apply to the two events. He said the move was aimed at "reducing any risks, simplifying the procedures for casting ballots, and allowing the voting to be carried out smoothly."
However, Ku said, his proposal was ignored, and he was repeatedly bullied and intimidated by people opposed to his proposal, adding that some even came to his office to call him names.
At the legislature yesterday, Huang said that the CEC has a set policy and is dealing with the matter according to the law. He said that vacancies created by resignations would be filled by suitable individuals.
According to the CEC policy, voters will get three ballots on election day -- one for the presidential election and another two for the referendum questions.
The two referendum questions concern whether Taiwan should strengthen its anti-missile defenses if China refuses to remove its missiles aimed at the island, and whether the government should negotiate with Beijing for the establishment of an interaction mechanism for peace across the Taiwan Strait.
The administration wants the three ballots to be cast at the same polling stations, and it has said that even votes placed in the wrong ballot boxes will be counted.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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