As presidential candidates increase their efforts to canvass support from first-time voters, lawmakers from across party lines are mulling whether to amend the law to lower the legal voting age to 18 years.
However, some academics cast doubt on the idea, saying that lowering the legal voting age would require a constitutional amendment.
According to Article 130 of the Constitution, citizens of the Republic of China (ROC) have the right to vote when they are 20 years old and “unless otherwise stipulated in the Constitution or in other laws, citizens of the ROC have the right to be voted for when they are legally 23 years old.”
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the New Party tried to lower the legal voting age when earlier amendments were made to the Constitution. Those moves were blocked by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
In an effort to lower the legal voting age, DPP Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) concluded a petition to amend the Constitution and handed it to the Constitutional Amendment Committee on May 13.
Currently, an amendment to the Constitution not only requires that it be proposed by at least a quarter of all legislators, that at least three-quarters of all legislators vote and that the vote be passed by three-quarters of voting legislators, it also needs to be ratified by a referendum with over 50 percent of voters voting in favor.
KMT Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中), proposed a way to circumvent the need to introduce a constitutional amendment, suggesting that the relevant laws could be amended by the Legislative Yuan.
Ting described as ludicrous the situation whereby ROC citizens who are 18 years old are legally responsible for any criminal behavior they engage in and eligible for mandatory military service, but still unable to vote.
Ting argued that his proposal did not necessitate an amendment to the Constitution because in a case where the Constitution directly undermines people’s rights, it should be interpreted loosely.
Whether or not to grant young adults under 20 years of age the right to vote should be a discretionary decision for legislators, Ting said.
However, an earlier forum hosted by the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) on the issue was unanimous in its opinion that the lowering of the legal voting age necessitated an amendment to the Constitution that could not be circumvented.
According to National Taiwan University department of political science professor Hwang Giin-tarng (黃錦堂), a proponent for lowering the legal voting age to 18 years of age, the Constitution is very explicit and to make a different interpretation of “legally 20 years old” would knock loose other articles and make it untenable. That view was echoed by Liao Da-chi (廖達琪), director of National Sun Yat-sen University’s institute of political science.
Aside from mulling changes to the legal age for voting, a number of DPP lawmakers have also been actively proposed amendments so that general elections held on Sundays, as well as extending voting hours, in a bid to ensure laborers who have to work on polling day are still able to vote.
The Central Election Commission traditionally sets polling days on Saturdays, with voting taking place from 8am until 4pm.
In light of the MOI’s pushing of absentee voting last year, DPP legislators feel that they should prioritize the voting rights of citizens who live in Taiwan, adding that extending voting hours for laborers having to work on Saturday would protect their right to vote.
DPP legislators said that neither the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act ( 總統副總統選舉罷免法) nor the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選罷法) explicitly designated Saturday as polling day, nor did they stipulate how many hours should be allowed for voting.
However, the commission opposes the extension in voting hours, saying that when such a measure was adopted during the 2009 mayoral and county commissioner elections, there was no visible increase in voter turnout, suggesting the two matters are not closely connected.
Besides, an extension in voting hours would cause election personnel to be overburdened and delay the opening time of the ballots, as well as increasing security risks during transport, the commission said.
On the matter of holding voting on Sunday, Central Electioon Commission Secretary-General Teng Tien-yu (鄧天祐) added that if there was a delay in the counting of ballots, it would directly impact the next working day. That said, Teng added that he remained neutral about the proposal.
TRANSLATED BY JAKE CHUNG, STAFF WRITER.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
RSS