The Central Election Commission (CEC) has released a statement asking the public to comply with disease prevention guidelines tomorrow when voting in the nine-in-one elections.
According to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), people who have tested positive for COVID-19 but who do not have severe symptoms must abide by its isolation policy — known as “5+n” — which requires home isolation for five days, followed by two days of self-disease prevention and taking rapid tests.
The CEC’s statement and the CECC’s guidelines prevent confirmed cases from voting.
This is a breach of people’s constitutional right to participate in public affairs. Based on the separation of powers, the Legislative Yuan should have a say on the matter.
However, the CEC contravened the principle of legal reservation when it bypassed the deliberation process in a democratic system, and strong-armed a decision that could keep 300,000 voters away from the ballot box.
Any form of voting restriction undermines citizens’ political rights and should therefore be scrutinized for constitutional validity. The policy could only be valid if it pursues government interests and undertakes the least intrusive means.
The majority of confirmed cases have non-severe symptoms, and the government has lifted border controls and other pandemic-related restrictions. It is therefore unfathomable that the government would still implement such a policy, especially considering that it does not benefit government interests.
If the government wishes to limit the effects of the pandemic, there are alternative options such as allowing confirmed cases to enter polling stations at different times from other voters. Preventing confirmed cases from leaving their residences is far from the “least intrusive and necessary means.”
If the CEC is deemed to have acted illegally in handling the elections, candidates have the right to sue it and invalidate the election.
It is expected that after a high-voltage election, candidates who lose by a small margin could argue that the commission acted unconstitutionally by banning voters from voting, claiming that it cost them their victory. Is the CEC willing to take such a risk?
It has been three years since the COVID-19 pandemic started, but the CEC has not been able to learn from other countries at the forefront of developing new practices, and has therefore lost an opportunity to establish alternative options such as postal voting systems.
Even if it is too late to develop new laws for this election, the CEC could have found a way to allow confirmed cases to go to polling stations at different times or to check in at separate, isolated sites.
They could be categorized as “electors” as stated in Article 19 of the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法): “The electors shall arrive at the polling stations within the specified time limit to vote, and may not enter the polling stations out of time. However, if an elector has arrived at the polling station within the specified time limit but has not voted yet, he/she still may vote.”
People could still be allowed to cast their votes while remaining separate from uninfected people.
The CEC should protect the voting rights of every citizen, including the rights of confirmed cases. Had it acted quicker, it could have set up response measures and policies to protect those rights.
Tu Yu-yin is an assistant professor at Tamkang University’s Department of Public Administration.
Translated by Rita Wang
The saga of Sarah Dzafce, the disgraced former Miss Finland, is far more significant than a mere beauty pageant controversy. It serves as a potent and painful contemporary lesson in global cultural ethics and the absolute necessity of racial respect. Her public career was instantly pulverized not by a lapse in judgement, but by a deliberate act of racial hostility, the flames of which swiftly encircled the globe. The offensive action was simple, yet profoundly provocative: a 15-second video in which Dzafce performed the infamous “slanted eyes” gesture — a crude, historically loaded caricature of East Asian features used in Western
Is a new foreign partner for Taiwan emerging in the Middle East? Last week, Taiwanese media reported that Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) secretly visited Israel, a country with whom Taiwan has long shared unofficial relations but which has approached those relations cautiously. In the wake of China’s implicit but clear support for Hamas and Iran in the wake of the October 2023 assault on Israel, Jerusalem’s calculus may be changing. Both small countries facing literal existential threats, Israel and Taiwan have much to gain from closer ties. In his recent op-ed for the Washington Post, President William
A stabbing attack inside and near two busy Taipei MRT stations on Friday evening shocked the nation and made headlines in many foreign and local news media, as such indiscriminate attacks are rare in Taiwan. Four people died, including the 27-year-old suspect, and 11 people sustained injuries. At Taipei Main Station, the suspect threw smoke grenades near two exits and fatally stabbed one person who tried to stop him. He later made his way to Eslite Spectrum Nanxi department store near Zhongshan MRT Station, where he threw more smoke grenades and fatally stabbed a person on a scooter by the roadside.
Taiwan-India relations appear to have been put on the back burner this year, including on Taiwan’s side. Geopolitical pressures have compelled both countries to recalibrate their priorities, even as their core security challenges remain unchanged. However, what is striking is the visible decline in the attention India once received from Taiwan. The absence of the annual Diwali celebrations for the Indian community and the lack of a commemoration marking the 30-year anniversary of the representative offices, the India Taipei Association and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center, speak volumes and raise serious questions about whether Taiwan still has a coherent India
RSS