The Central Election Commission (CEC) yesterday reversed a decision it had reached last Thursday and announced that presidential ballots that are placed in referendum ballot boxes will be considered invalid.
"Due to the concerns of various political parties and government administrations, the CEC held another provisional meeting and reached a consensus that misplaced presidential ballots are invalid," said Huang Shih-cheng (
Huang said that referendum ballots that are placed in presidential ballot boxes will also be considered invalid.
PHOTO: CHEN TSE-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
However, if ballots on either of the two referendum questions are placed in the other question's ballot box, the ballots will be considered valid.
Huang said that because stations for voting in the presidential election will be separated from stations for referendum voting, the possibility of voters' misplacing ballots is extremely small.
"Given that separate stations exist, and that presidential ballots will be stamped and dropped off before voters get their referendum ballots, it is almost impossible that ballots will be misplaced," Huang said.
Now that the commission has decided that misplaced ballots will be considered invalid, the result of the presidential election is expected to be announced at around 7pm on election day.
This will be possible because it will not now be necessary to count referendum ballots before presidential ballots can be tabulated.
Yesterday's provisional commission meeting was originally scheduled to be held today. However, due to strong opposition from the heads of several government offices and from some political parties, the meeting was moved to yesterday.
"It is the CEC's right to be able to hold last-minute meetings as circumstances dictate," Huang said.
In yesterday's meeting, 11 out of 17 members were present, among whom seven supported invalidating misplaced ballots, while four abstained from voting on the issue.
Huang said that the decision reached yesterday could be changed again before election day.
Because no law sets precise regulations for the balloting processes, details for certain procedures depend entirely on consensus among the committee's members.
Huang said that the Legislative Yuan should pass a law to set specific decision-making guidelines.
"It would be so much easier for the CEC if there were guidelines to follow. I hope a law will be passed on this issue," Huang said.
Some voters have said that they wish to wear badges stating that they refuse to collect referendum ballots.
Huang said that because such badges could be interpreted as an attempt to affect others' voting decisions, they will not be allowed at polling places.
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