A proposed absentee voting system that the government hopes to implement for the 2012 presidential election will not allow postal voting, meaning that Taiwanese living overseas will have to return home to cast their ballots.
Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission (OCAC) Minister Wu Ying-yih (吳英毅) said yesterday his commission respected the Ministry of the Interior’s absentee voting proposal.
“The OCAC will respect whatever decisions the government makes on the new voting system and will help publicize it,” Wu told a legislative hearing.
Wu said he supported easier and more convenient ways of voting for expats who retain their household registration in Taiwan.
He added that if the government decided to implement the proposed absentee voting system only within Taiwan on election day, the commission would respect that decision.
He made the remarks a day after Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) said the government was mulling the introduction of absentee voting in time for the 2012 presidential election.
Jiang said the ministry was considering an absentee system that would allow “transfer voting.”
This would mean that election workers, military personnel, students and inmates could vote in the constituencies where they work, study or serve their sentences, instead of only being able to vote in districts where their households are registered.
At present people who work or live away from where they are registered are required to return to their registered addresses to vote.
Systems that require absentee voting prior to election day or by mail will not be considered, Jiang said.
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