A referendum on a proposed constitutional amendment aimed at lowering the voting age from 20 to 18 is to be held in conjunction with the local elections on Nov. 26, and voters are keeping a keen eye on the matter.
Some people believe that voters across the political spectrum are obligated to support this historic constitutional moment. However, the argument is reductive in many ways. Even worse, the rushed approach threatens to undermine the serious process of amending the Constitution.
The idea of lowering the voting age reportedly gained support early in the campaign, which the governing Democratic Progressive Party used as a selling point in its call on other political parties to fulfill their historic responsibilities in supporting it.
Article 130 of the Constitution says: “Any citizen of the Republic of China who has attained the age of 20 years shall have the right of election in accordance with law.”
At first glance, one might think that the article says that people under age 20 do not have the right to vote. This is the basis for the argument in support of an amendment; to lower the voting age, the Constitution must be amended.
However — based on constitutional theory, interpretation and local practices — an amendment to Article 130 is not necessary to lower the voting age.
Soochow University law professor Nigel Lee (李念祖) said that the debate over whether the referendum should be conducted along with the local elections distracted the public from the more substantial legal issues regarding the proposed amendments.
Before the Legislative Yuan unanimously approved the draft amendment, some people had already discussed the possibility of an easier plan that did not require a constitutional amendment. Directly amending the Constitution through legislation to lower the voting age would not contravene the Constitution’s intent.
A correct interpretation of the Constitution would kill two birds with one stone. Not only could the nation avoid the complex procedure of amending Article 130, but it could also make the process easier with a more effective approach. Passing a bill to amend the Constitution in the Legislative Yuan, like amending any law, requires approval after three readings.
Lee said that if an amendment to a law was proposed, the legislation would have been in force by now, and 18-year-olds would have the right to vote in November’s local elections.
National Taiwan University law professor Yen Chueh-an (顏厥安) suggested that after such an amendment passed, an administrative agency could petition for an interpretation at the Constitutional Court. However, given the wide public support for lowering the voting age, Lee assumed it is unlikely that an agency would do so.
Even if the amendment faced a serious challenge, the result could be encouraging, as the Grand Justices of the Constitutional Court lean toward judicial activism and the protection of human rights. Otherwise, they would have to address the more difficult question of why on this occasion they had taken a more conservative stance.
Unfortunately, the nation now might be facing a dilemma. If a constitutional amendment is rejected by the referendum result, the political challenge will be even greater.
More than 19.31 million people voted in the 2020 presidential election, which means that at least 9.65 million people must support the amendment in the referendum for the initiative to pass.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) won the 2020 presidential election with an unprecedented 8.17 million votes. The difficulty of passing this constitutional amendment could not be clearer. If the amendment is rejected in the referendum, who would then take the lead to put the genie back in the bottle, and what would be the justification for the reckless misjudegment of holding a referendum?
“Constitutional reform is an important and serious issue, but not all constitutional reforms must be implemented through constitution-making or a constitutional amendment,” Yen said. “Lowering the threshold for constitutional amendments is difficult to pass... The aim of a constitutional amendment must lie in the future of the nation as well as the well-being of the people. It must not be turned into low-level political maneuvering based on political rivalry, descending into a perpetual round of finger-pointing.”
Huang Yu-zhe is a student at National Chengchi University’s Graduate Institute of Law and Interdisciplinary Studies.
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