The Central Election Commission (CEC) yesterday approved one of two public referendum questions proposed by opposition lawmakers in the Legislature Yuan, but was harshly criticized by the opposition for rejecting the other proposal.
The submission that was approved was a question on whether the Maanshan Nuclear Power Plant should resume operations, provided it is deemed safe by the relevant authorities. The vote is scheduled for Aug. 23, 2025.
The rejected proposal asked whether judges should be allowed to impose the death penalty without a unanimous verdict.
Photo: Lee Wen-hsin, Taipei Times
According to the CEC, that proposal was not allowed because it contradicted a constitutional court ruling in 2024 requiring unanimous decisions for death sentences.
In addition, the proposal does not qualify as a major policy issue under the Referendum Act (公民投票法), the CEC said in a statement.
Referendums initiated by the Legislature must follow the Referendum Act and can only address the creation or repeal of major policies, the agency said.
The death penalty proposal, it said, was deemed to be an attempt to change fundamental legal principles, which is outside the legal scope of referendums.
In contrast, the nuclear energy proposal deals with energy policy and fits within the rules for referendums. The plant stopped operating on May 17, and the vote will decide whether it can restart.
The referendum will be held nationwide on Aug. 23, from 8 am to 4 pm, and will be listed as Referendum Case No. 21, the CEC said.
The CEC insisted that it is an independent body that must ensure all referendum proposals follow the law, even when submitted by the Legislature.
In response, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) condemned the CEC for rejecting the proposed referendum on the death penalty, accusing the commission of “acting unlawfully and serving as a political tool.”
In a statement, the KMT caucus said the Referendum Act does not grant the CEC or other administrative bodies the power to conduct “politically motivated reviews of proposals” submitted by the Legislative Yuan, calling the decision a “blatant abuse of power.”
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have declared they survived recall votes to remove them from office today, although official results are still pending as the vote counting continues. Although final tallies from the Central Election Commission (CEC) are still pending, preliminary results indicate that the recall campaigns against all seven KMT lawmakers have fallen short. As of 6:10 pm, Taichung Legislators Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) and Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔), Hsinchu County Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘), Nantou County Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) and New Taipei City Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) had all announced they
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday visited Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), as the chipmaker prepares for volume production of Nvidia’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chips. It was Huang’s third trip to Taiwan this year, indicating that Nvidia’s supply chain is deeply connected to Taiwan. Its partners also include packager Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密) and server makers Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達). “My main purpose is to visit TSMC,” Huang said yesterday. “As you know, we have next-generation architecture called Rubin. Rubin is very advanced. We have now taped out six brand new
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant