Members of the Referendum Initiative Association yesterday called on voters to boycott the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative and presidential candidates in response to the party's boycott of referendums that will be held alongside the legislative elections on Saturday.
"A referendum is a way of realizing direct democracy and is used in many countries around the globe," association convener Lin Shuang-pu (林雙不) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. "Since the KMT has called on people to boycott the referendums, we will call on the people to boycott the KMT."
After a provisional meeting of the Central Standing Committee last Monday, KMT chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) announced that the party had passed a resolution to boycott Saturday's referendums.
Wu said the KMT was concerned the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was using the referendums as a "dirty trick" to destabilize society and then manipulate the chaos to win the election.
The two referendums include one proposed by the DPP to recover government assets acquired illegally by the KMT during its five decades of authoritarian rule and another proposed by the KMT to empower the legislature to investigate misconduct of senior government officials and their family members.
"The KMT initiated one of the referendums, 1.3 million citizens in the country endorsed it and the government has spent a lot of money printing the ballots -- but now they're calling it off," Referendum Initiative Association executive director Yeh Poh-wen (
"It will be a disaster for all Taiwanese if a party that fools people in this way wins power," Lin said.
The association was planning a demonstration outside of KMT headquarters tomorrow.
"Anyone is welcome to join us at exit 2 of Zhongxiao Xinsheng MRT station at 9am on Tuesday," Lin said.
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