The Central Election Commission (CEC) has applied for an NT$55 million (US$1.6 million) special budget from the Cabinet to hold two referendums on legislative election day next year, a commission official said yesterday.
The official, who wished to remain anonymous, said the commission was awaiting Cabinet approval to use the budget for the "stolen party assets recovery" referendum proposed by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the "anti-corruption" referendum put forward by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
REFERENDUMS
The stolen party assets recovery referendum aims to compel the KMT to return party assets acquired illegally during the party's five-decades of authoritarian rule.
The anti-corruption referendum, for its part, aims to give the legislature the power to investigate the president and his or her subordinates involved in alleged cases of corruption.
For each referendum, the petitioner must first submit the signatures of 5 percent of all eligible voters -- or 820,000 signatures.
The CEC will hold the stolen party assets recovery referendum on Jan. 12, in parallel with the legislative elections.
It received 1.4 million valid signatures from the DPP in June.
COMING SHORT
To date, the KMT has not submitted enough valid signatures for its proposed anti-corruption referendum, but the official said its referendum would eventually pass the threshold as the KMT had submitted an additional 300,000 signatures.
The official said that the commission would likely hold the two referendums on the same day as the legislative election.
The special budget would go toward the manufacturing of the more than 10,000 extra vote boxes required for the two referendums, the official said.
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