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Referendum Law needs amending: President Chen

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday threw his support behind a campaign aimed at amending the Referendum Law (公投法) and said he hoped the legislature would approve the revisions before the end of the year.

Speaking to members of the 300A3 chapter of the Lions Club International at the Presidential Office yesterday afternoon, Chen said he had given his full support to a nationwide campaign re-launched by the Nuke-4 Referendum Initiative Association last month to overhaul the Referendum Law.

The Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) Central Standing Committee yesterday also passed a motion supporting the group's initiative.

The association has demanded that rules governing national and regional referendums be eased, as all public matters, except for personnel deployment, should be put to a popular vote.

The referendum review committee should be abolished and legal thresholds reduced, it said.

The group also argues that the legal threshold for making the petition for a referendum valid should be lowered to 100 and the number of signatures collected to make the proposal legitimate should be brought down to 1.5 percent of eligible voters.

The law stipulates that the signatures of at least 0.5 percent of eligible voters at the last presidential election are needed for a referendum proposal to be established.

After passing the threshold, the signatures of 5 percent of the eligible voters must be collected within six months for a referendum to be held. Moreover, half of the total number of eligible voters must cast their ballots, with half of those valid votes cast agreeing on the issue for the referendum's results to be declared valid.

Chen said that referendums were a manifestation of the universal value of democracy and the fundamental exercise of human rights but that the present Referendum Law was a vile law that deprives the people of their democratic rights.

He said he hoped the legislature would amend the legislation by the end of the year and get rid of unreasonable and ridiculous articles.

Chen said he was particularly proud of three achievements in his seven years as president: holding the first national referendum, nationalizing the armed forces and effecting the first transfer of power.

Chen said he lived the past 2,600 days like a boat sailing against the current and if he had not encouraged himself to forge courageously ahead, he and the administration would not have made it this far.
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