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Presidential election 2008: 8 days to go: CEC member calls for taking referendums off ballots

Wu Yu-hsueh (吳雨學), a Central Election Commission (CEC) member recommended by the Taiwan Solidarity Union, yesterday submitted a motion asking the commission to seperate the two planned UN referendums from the March 22 presidential election.

"I'm proposing the motion for the good of Taiwan," Wu said. "Both referendum proposals are good for the country since either one expresses our desire to join the international organization. It would be a shame if neither of them pass because of the political struggle between the two major parties," he said.

The two referendum proposals refer to one initiated by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that asks voters if they agree to Taiwan seeking UN membership under the name "Taiwan," and the other put forward by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), asking if Taiwan should seek UN membership under the name "Republic of China (ROC)," or any other "practical" title.

The CEC decided last month to hold the two referendums alongside the presidential election.

Pan-blue camp politicians, however, condemned the decision as a "dirty trick" by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) aimed at boosting support for DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷).

They also said they considered seeking UN membership using the name "Taiwan" a provocative move.

While the KMT Central Standing Committee on Wednesday officially decided to support its own referendum initiative and boycott the one proposed by the DPP, many KMT politicians continued to call on their supporters to boycott both referendums.

When asked for comments on how the CEC would handle Wu's motion, commission Chairman Chang Cheng-hsiung (張政雄) yesterday said that at least one of the five other commission members who supported holding the referendums and the election together must second the motion before the CEC discusses it.

Meanwhile, in order to protect the right to secret ballots after the KMT's decision to support one referendum and boycott the other, the CEC said in a news release yesterday that, even though there will be two separate boxes for the two referendums in all the poll stations, the titles of the two referendums will not be labeled on the two referendum ballot boxes.
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