Too many civic groups want to argue against the March 20 referendum, and unless they can decide among themselves who will participate, they will have to be selected through drawing lots, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said yesterday.
CEC officials said they would invite the representatives of all the groups to meet today to try to work out a solution. If a compromise cannot be reached, then a drawing of lots will be necessary to decide who will face off with government representatives.
The officials said: "We are racing against time to screen the signatures of the civic groups who wish to participate in the upcoming debates."
At least 1,547 signatures are needed for a non-political group to qualify to take part in the debates. Officials are faced with the daunting task of trying to verify the endorsement signatures of 48 organizations.
Among the 48, 25 groups have registered to challenge the government's views on the first question concerning the enhancing of the nation's anti-missile defense capability in the face of China's missile threat, and 23 groups have registered to debate the second question concerning the reopening of cross-strait talks between Taiwan and China.
All 23 groups wanting to debate the second question registered to debate the first question.
Because there will only be 10 public debates, five for each of the two questions, with one representative from the "affirmative" and "negative" sides attending each debate, coordination is necessary before drawing lots to decide who will participate.
Those who qualify will be announced tomorrow, the officials said.
The debates will start on Feb. 29 and run for three consecutive Sundays.
There will be four debates on Feb. 29 and March 7, and two on March 14.
Meanwhile, one of the civic groups demanded yesterday that the CEC protect those who have different viewpoints and give them a chance to take part in the debate.
Kao Cheng-yen (
Kao was upset that TV talk-show personality Jaw Shau-kong (
Jaw's group was the first to express the desire to serve on the negative side. He had said that his group wants to show that the two questions are absurd and that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) had illegally called the referendum.
"Jaw has dominated the media. Does he also want to dominate the debate forum?" Kao asked.
Kao said that he had asked the CEC to give priority to those groups who have different views.
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