Presidential election 2008: 7 days to go: CEC releases voter count, receives referendum motion

More than 17 million citizens will be eligible to cast ballots in the March 22 presidential election, the Central Election Commission (CEC) has announced.

The commission on Thursday published the exact number of eligible voters for the presidential poll as the campaign enters the home stretch.

The CEC figures show a total of 17,325,508 voters are eligible to join the upcoming presidential vote.

The figures also show that 17,317,738 voters are eligible to vote in the referendums to be held alongside the presidential poll. CEC officials said the discrepancy lies in the fact that more than 7,700 expatriates have successfully registered to vote in the presidential poll, but may not necessarily be qualified to vote in the referendums.

REFERENDUM MOTION

CEC Secretary-General Teng Tien-yu (鄧天佑) said last night that the UN referendum would be held on March 22 as previously scheduled because no CEC commissioner had seconded the request to reconsider the commission's decision on the two referendums.

Wu Yu-hsueh (吳雨學), a CEC commissioner recommended by the Taiwan Solidarity Union, filed an application on Wednesday asking that the commission reconsider its decision on the two referendums.

On Feb. 1, the CEC had decided through a 6 to 4 vote to hold the two referendums alongside the presidential election.

National title

One referendum was initiated by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on joining the UN under the name Taiwan and the other by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) calling for rejoining the UN under the official title Republic of China or any other "practical" names.

Wu was one of the six CEC commissioners who voted in favor of the decision.

CEC Chairman Chang Cheng-hsiung (張政雄) said at a Legislative Yuan session on Thursday that altering the original decision requires a re-consideration proposal to be presented by one of the six commissioners who originally voted for combining the two referendums with the election and the endorsement of one other, he said.