The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday said it plans to propose a special statute that will pave the way for a national referendum to resolve the decades-long controversy over the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮).
DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) announced the plan at a press conference after it was approved at the party’s weekly Central Standing Committee meeting, saying that stopping the construction of the plant has always been a party goal.
“A nuclear-free homeland has always been part of the DPP charter and our position remains unchanged,” Su said, adding that the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant accident in Japan has only added urgency to achieving this goal.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
The DPP’s legislative caucus is to propose a special statute calling for a referendum on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (核四公投特別條例) to bypass the Referendum Act (公投法), which has been described as a “birdcage act” with its high threshold and perceived unfair regulations.
The proposal would change the threshold to a simple majority. Current regulations require the participation of 50 percent of eligible voters, half of whom must cast a “yes” vote for the referendum to pass.
The special statute would also require that the referendum question be simple, asking voters whether they support or oppose the plant’s construction, Su said, adding that previous proposals on the matter had a clear political agenda.
A referendum question proposed by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers last year asks: “Do you agree that the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant should be halted and that it should not become operational (你是否同意核四廠停止興建不得運轉)?”
Given the current high threshold, the referendum is unlikely to pass, thus rendering the government’s plan to put the plant into operation legitimate, critics have said.
The DPP would also demand that the referendum be held by the end of this year, Su said.
He said the DPP initiative was made in response to former DPP chairman Lin Yi-xiong (林義雄), who announced on Tuesday that he is to go on an indefinite hunger strike on Tuesday next week to urge the government to halt construction of the power plant.
Lin also called on society to make whatever effort necessary to warn President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration against defying mainstream public opinion.
In addition, the DPP will organize anti-nuclear mass rallies across the country and ask all candidates in the seven-in-one elections to include the anti-nuclear campaign in their platform, Su said.
Separately, Su proposed a provisional party platform initiative in response to society’s demand for “new politics” following the just-concluded Sunflower movement.
The three-stage plan, which was approved by the Central Standing Committee, calls on the party to gather opinions from a wide range of people and organizations by the end of this month before engaging in extensive discussions and formulating feasible plans next month.
The final stage would be a task for the next DPP chairman, who will be selected in the chairmanship election next month.
Su has said he is not seeking re-election as chairman.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
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
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS