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No consensus reached on Referendum Law changes

Lawmakers in the Home and Nations Committee failed to reach consensus yesterday on several amendments to the Referendum Law (公民投票法).

An amendment proposed by pan-blue lawmakers suggested deleting an article, known as the "defensive clause," which gives the president the power to launch a referendum when the nation's sovereignty is being threatened.

"The Constitution grants the president the power to issue emergency decrees and take all necessary measures to avert an imminent threat to national security," Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) said.

"The `defensive clause,' therefore, is superfluous and holding a referendum when the country is in danger is also a slow action which could not resolve a critical situation," Lee said.

Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Legislator David Huang (黃適卓) said the "defensive clause" is an important weapon.

"China's ambition to annex Taiwan is a worry for the country. The president should have the power to initiate a referendum that could reinforce the public's `Taiwan consciousness' and make the people's stance heard around the world," Huang said.

The second amendment, sponsored by KMT Legislator Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛), would ban holding a national referendum at the same time as a national election.

Pan said she wanted to avoid the possibility that a referendum issue would affect an election occurring at the same time.

But Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said that Pan's proposal would prevent the government from holding a referendum regarding the KMT's stolen assets at the next legislative election.

Meanwhile, an amendment sponsored by Huang was aimed at reducing the threshold for holding a national referendum and doing away with the referendum supervisory committee, which has to approve initiating a referendum.

"A referendum should reflect the `power of the people,' but the high threshold and committee only act in a diametrically opposite way," Huang said.

Due to differences of opinion, co-convenor Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇), of the KMT said that the committee has put the amendments on hold pending further discussions.
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