The first phase of a referendum on an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) organized by the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) will be completed a month ahead of schedule and with far more than the required number of signatures.
TSU officials told the Taipei Times yesterday they expected to be able to deliver nearly 200,000 signatures to the Executive Yuan’s Referendum Review Committee by the middle of this month, more than double the 86,000 signatures needed to pass the first review.
TSU Associate Director Chou Ni-an (周倪安) said the party’s projections were based on the overwhelming response it had received from non-profit organizations and grassroots movements.
In a show of support, the independence-leaning Neo Formosa Magazine delivered an additional 10,000 signatures to the TSU yesterday afternoon.
Among the signatures was that of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who according to his office secretary is a supporter of the referendum drive.
This was the second attempt at a referendum on the controversial trade pact.
A drive initiated by the DPP last year was rebuffed by the Referendum Review Committee despite having an initial review passed by the Central Election Commission.
The committee turned down the petition on the grounds that it was based on a hypothetical situation that did not meet the criteria of the Referendum Act (公投法).
TSU officials said yesterday that in light of government plans to sign the pact in June, these comments would no longer stand.
Chiang said that if the review committee once again rejected the proposal, pro-independence organizations and the TSU would have no choice but to band together and rally in support of the referendum, promising to send up to 1 million protesters onto the streets.
A DPP poll showed that 66.1 percent of the public supports holding a nationwide referendum before government agencies can sign the agreement.
The proposal by the TSU will ask voters to choose whether they agreed or disagree with the government signing any type of economic agreement with China, as exemplified by “President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) ECFA proposal.”
Meanwhile, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said he had asked the Mainland Affairs Council and Ministry of Economic Affairs to provide DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) with information concerning an ECFA by April 19, one week ahead of their scheduled debate on the topic on April 25.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
RSS