Defending his ministry’s plan to introduce absentee voting in the 2012 presidential election, Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) yesterday urged the opposition to support the plan, which he said has won overwhelming public support.
The ministry on Thursday said it will push for an amendment to the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法) to make absentee voting in the presidential election possible.
Under the plan, all eligible voters, except those who live abroad, would be able to cast their vote outside the county or city where their household is registered so long as they file an application within a period pre-designated by the Central Election Commission.
Calling on the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to view the absentee voting system in a positive way, Jiang said the system could “expand voter participation in elections,” adding that according to ministry statistics, more than 80 percent of the people in the country have expressed support for the system.
Jiang also dismissed allegations made by the DPP, which said that implementation of an absentee voting system was an attempt by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government to sway the voting behavior of military personnel as their voting actions are likely be affected by the supervisors who monitor them.
Jiang said the ministry has not considered setting up polling -stations in army camps because the ministry plans to have members of the military, who are on duty on election day, cast ballots in polling stations outside army camps.
The absentee voting system was not introduced to serve any specific group of people, he stressed.
Unconvinced, DPP spokesperson Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) accused the government of making the decision “in a manner that is not sufficiently prudent and careful,” and said the plan has been drawn up for political reasons.
The public has not yet reached a consensus on whether or not absentee voting should be implemented and there is a lack of -coordinating measures or a mechanism to prevent flaws or irregularities, he said, adding that his party believes that such a system should start with a small election, instead of a major one such as a presidential election.
“The government has to explain why it chose the 2012 presidential election as the time to adopt absentee voting. Is it good timing? Is the absentee voting system designed to prevent abuses? What are the contingencies for potential controversies caused by the new voting system?” asked DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday when approached by the press for comment.
Additional reporting by CNA
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