The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday condemned Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators for blocking the proceedings of a committee meeting to review draft amendments to the Referendum Act (公民投票法)
As the Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration Committee gathered to review various draft amendments, KMT legislators in a surprise move pushed their way to the front to occupy the speaker’s podium, preventing the committee meeting from starting.
Holding up placards that read “Public hearing first, review later,” and “We boycott the review,” KMT legislators thwarted efforts by lawmakers from the DPP and other parties from starting the meeting.
KMT legislators said that they opposed the DPP’s draft amendment that would require people to attach a copy of their national ID card when signing a petition for a referendum.
The KMT’s version does not contain such a requirement.
It also retains the original wording that referendums must be held alongside national elections, while the DPP’s version says that referendums may be decoupled from national elections.
The KMT’s obstruction lasted until the end of legislature’s working hours at 5:30pm.
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said that the KMT’s intention was to muddle the issue and cause a bigger problem by preventing lawmakers from resolving the issues revealed by last year’s 10 referendums that were held alongside the local elections.
“KMT lawmakers have also hindered themselves, because the committee was supposed to discuss draft amendments proposed by the KMT. We should all sit down and get on with the review process,” Ker said.
DPP legislative caucus secretary-general Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) said that it was illogical and preposterous for KMT legislators to boycott the process, and compared them to Chinese Boxer rebels at the end of 19th century.
The petitions for last year’s referendums were found to contain signatures of people who had died and in one case a cosponsor was found to have signed for 28 other people, Cheng said, adding that yesterday’s meeting was aimed at addressing these problems.
“Most of the problems were linked to KMT-related groups, whose petitions contained about 11,000 fictitious people or people who had died, and the figure was fairly consistent among all KMT-led referendum petitions,” Cheng said.
DPP Legislator Liu Shih-fang (劉世芳) said that the ID verification requirement aims to prevent the use of fake signatures and dead people’s names in referendum drives.
Many civic groups have called for resolving the issue, but the KMT does not want to address these problems, Liu said.
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