The top election official said yesterday it would still be possible to hold the referendums and the presidential election separately if the legislature amends the law to lower referendum thresholds.
Central Election Commission (CEC) Chairman Chang Cheng-hsiung (張政雄) made the remarks while fielding a question from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator John Wu (吳志揚) at the legislature's Home and Nations Committee meeting.
The CEC decided in a meeting last month to hold two referendums on the nation's UN bid together with the presidential election on March 22.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-sponsored referendum asks if voters support seeking UN membership using the name "Taiwan," while the KMT initiative asks if voters support rejoining the world body under the "Republic of China" or any other "practical titles."
Some pan-blue politicians have called on voters to boycott both referendums.
After a meeting with Taiwan Solidarity Union Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) on Wednesday, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said he would hold cross-party negotiations on separating the referendums and the presidential election if the KMT consents to amending the Referendum Law to lower the voting threshold for referendum results.
Current law stipulates that the petition to hold a referendum requires the signature of 0.5 percent of eligible voters who took part in the most recent presidential election -- about 80,000 people. In addition, the signature of 5 percent of the number of voters in the nation, or approximately 800,000 people, are needed before the petition can be screened by the Referendum Review Committee.
After the petition is approved, a 50 percent voter turnout -- approximately 8 million voters -- is required for a referendum to be considered valid.
"[The CEC] does not rule out holding a new round of discussions [on separating the referendums and the election] if there's a change in circumstances -- such as an amendment to the Referendum Law to lower thresholds," Chang said.
Chang added that if the referendums were held separate from the election, "it should be handled seven days before the election at the latest."
At a separate setting yesterday, KMT caucus whip Lin Yi-shih (
"The UN referendum issue should be resolved as soon as possible. If President Chen thinks that the referendums can be separated from the election, the CEC should solve the issue," he said.
KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) yesterday declined to comment on whether the KMT was willing to amend the law, adding that the party would make its stance clear after the Central Standing Committee meeting on Wednesday.
"The KMT does not oppose referendums, but we oppose twisting the meaning of the referendums," Wu said.
DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (
"But if the KMT rejects all options and works to thwart the referendums, we don't have much choice," he said.
Holding a referendum together with the poll could boost the odds of it succeeding, he said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater