Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) called on the public yesterday to dump Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) if he refused to support amendments to the Referendum Law (
Lin, a member of the political lobby group Nuke-4 Referendum Initiative Association, led group members to the legislature yesterday and lobbied lawmakers to support revisions to the law.
Lin said the group would make public the names of legislators who back and those who oppose the amendments on Friday.
PHOTO: CNA
Group members also intend to visit the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidates to obtain their views on the matter.
The association hopes the legislature will approve the changes before the session ends on Jan. 31.
Association chief executive Iap Phok-bun (
Only 26 DPP and five Taiwan Solidarity Union legislators have responded to date, with the association receiving six more endorsements yesterday.
Association convenor Lin Shuang-pu (
Arguing that the KMT is the main hindrance to the nation's democratic development, Lin I-hsiung asked the public to use the KMT's attitude on the matter to gauge its sincerity in elevating its democratic accomplishments.
Although the DPP and the KMT have been aggressively soliciting support for their individual UN membership referendum proposals, Lin I-hsiung said the proposals would constitute nothing but political ploys if they failed to amend the Referendum Law and allow people to have a final say on major issues.
The association is seeking to lower the threshold for a referendum request from the 80,000 voters -- or 0.5 percent of eligible voters -- in the last presidential election, to 100.
It also wants to lower the threshold for a referendum request that necessitates 5 percent of eligible voters in the last presidential election -- or 800,000 -- to 1.5 percent, or 240,000 voters.
In addition, the association has proposed the abolition of the Referendum Review Committee and the lowering of the number of voters required to make a referendum valid from 50 percent to 25 percent.
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