Lawmakers and government officials yesterday squared off in the legislature over adjustments to thresholds for holding referendums and recalling public officials, culminating in Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators blocking a motion by the opposition asking the administration to submit draft amendments to the two related acts within two months.
As civic groups have continued their push for amendments to the Referendum Act (公民投票法) and the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), Democratic Progressive Party legislators have repeatedly submitted proposals to lower thresholds for holding a vote, but their motions have been blocked at least 128 times by their KMT counterparts, DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) said.
The movement appeared to have gained momentum after New Taipei City Mayor and KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said that he would be glad to see “rational adjustments” made to the two laws.
However, on Monday, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Chien Tai-lang (簡太郎) reportedly told a KMT caucus meeting that no changes should be made to the two acts.
Chien yesterday denied making such a statement, telling a meeting of the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee that it was false reporting.
“Rational adjustments can certainly be discussed, such as the thresholds for proposing and petitioning [for a referendum or a recall],” he said.
However, he insisted that the 50 percent voter turnout should be retained to avoid having a minority make decisions for the majority.
Central Election Commission Chairman Liu Yi-chou (劉義周) advised proponents of change to carefully consider the potential impact of referendum results when proposing changes to the thresholds.
Although the Referendum Act is not within the commission’s purview, “as a professor I believe there is a theoretical basis for lowering the threshold to 40 percent, which is half of 80 percent, the highest voter turnout on the country’s record,” Liu said.
As for the DPP’s proposal to abolish the 21-member Referendum Evaluation Committee — which has the right to veto proposals to hold referendums, including a petition last year, backed by 120,000 signatures, to hold a referendum on the operation of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant — Chien said the committee should not be abolished since the Council of Grand Justices’ Interpretation No. 645 has made it clear that the committee is not unconstitutional.
DPP Legislator Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄) said that is why referendums are compared to a “bird cage” in Taiwan, because there exist countless hurdles for a vote to take place.
Lee questioned Chien’s citation of the grand justices’ interpretation, saying it had ruled that the composition of the committee being proportional to political party representation in the legislature is unconstitutional, “but not that the committee per se is constitutional.”
The DPP legislators’ extempore motion asking the Executive Yuan to submit draft amendments to the two acts within two months was voted down by the KMT lawmakers.
Chien said a public hearing is to be held by the Ministry of the Interior on the threshold question, in which different views could be discussed.
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