The Cabinet yesterday launched a referendum review committee, taking a step toward President Chen Shui-bian's (
Cabinet Secretary-General Liu Shih-fang (
"Technically, we don't have any problem with holding a referendum. However, the timing and the impact it will have is what concerns us," she said, adding that the Cabinet will use its second emergency fund to cover the cost of the first referendum.
In addition to calling on the Legislative Yuan to pass the referendum bill during the next legislative session, Liu reiterated that the Cabinet's first priority is to push for the speedy passage of the bill so that it has sufficient time to prepare for the first referendum.
According to the Central Election Commission, the agency assigned by the Cabinet to conduct the referendum, it has to decide what issues it will put before the citizenry before November if the referendum is to coincide with the presidential election.
Minister without Portfolio Hsu Chih-hsiung (
"In addition to such talked-about issues as the nation's entry into the World Health Organization, the fate of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant and legislative reform, we welcome any other topics on public policies," Hsu said.
Although committee members do not include nuclear or medical experts, Hsu said the committee can invite such professionals to offer their opinions if necessary.
The committee members include six officials and eight academics or other experts, including Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (
The committee will scrutinize the issues for referendums and implementation plans put forth by the authorities.
The Cabinet has to promulgate a referendum issue within 10 days of deciding that a referendum will be held. The referendum date must be arranged within two months from the day the issues are made public.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS