Voters wearing stickers encouraging others not to vote in Satur-day's referendum would not be considered to be breaking the law if they did not engage in any "aggressive" behavior, the Central Election Commission (CEC) announced yes-terday.
"Those who do not clamor, interfere or induce others to vote in or not to vote in the referendum will be allowed to wear such stickers inside polling stations or within 30m of their perimeter," CEC Chairman Huang Shih-cheng (
Violators will be given a warning about their behavior in the first instance.
Those refusing to cooperate after that are subject to a fine of up to NT$15,000 or one year in jail.
But people will continue to be banned from wearing any stickers or outfits encouraging others to vote for a particular presidential candidate, in accordance with the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Law (
Violators are subject to a fine of between NT$500,000 and NT$5 mil-lion.
Huang was speaking after a closed-door meeting presided over by Premier Yu Shyi-kun, who pled-ged yesterday morning during a legislative interpellation session that the Cabinet would make the final decision on the contested issue by the end of the day.
Yu made the pledge in response to a question filed by independent Lawmaker Sisy Chen (
Chen asked that Yu and Huang clarify the Cabinet and CEC stances on the matter because the CEC's opinion had been at odds with the Ministry of Justice and the National Police Administration.
Huang told Chen that voters wearing stickers encouraging others not to vote in the referendum would not be considered illegal if they did not engage in "aggressive" behavior such as incitement to violence.
Yu also said that it would not be considered illegal if voters refused to pick up their referendum ballots at polling stations providing that in doing so they did not influence others.
Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (
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