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DPP hopes to set world record with referendum drive

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) aims to collect 2 million signatures by the end of this month for its petition to hold a referendum on Taiwan's UN membership bid, "in the hope that the number would be recognized as a Guinness World Record," a DPP official said yesterday.

So far, 917,000 people have signed the petition in support of a referendum on whether to apply to join the UN under the name Taiwan, DPP Secretary-General Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said.

Lin said he found that the Guinness World Records does not have any referendum-related records.

Claiming that Taiwan has the world's highest threshold for the initiation of referendums, Lin said the DPP will apply to have the signature number listed in the annual reference book after the party achieves its goal of collecting 2 million signatures.

Lin said 60 percent of respondents to a recent DPP-organized opinion poll think the proposed UN bid referendum is very important, while 30 percent did not.

The survey found that nearly 90 percent of pan-green supporters are in favor of the referendum and will turn out for the March presidential election, Lin said.

The petition is the second phase of a procedure in which the DPP is required to obtain the signatures of more than 5 percent of the number of eligible voters in the last presidential election -- more than 825,359 -- after obtaining more than 0.5 percent of the number in the first phase.

The DPP had originally set its target at 1 million signatures. However, its Central Standing Committee raised the target to 2 million on Wednesday.

Taiwan has tried without success to join the UN since 1993. This year was the first time it applied to join under the name "Taiwan."
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