Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), who launched the campaign to boycott referendums held during the legislative elections, said the KMT should withdraw its proposed referendum on "returning" to the UN using the title "Republic of China."
Hung also called on the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to withdraw its referendum bid on joining the UN under the name "Taiwan."
However, according to the Referendum Act (
Asked for comment, Hung said she hoped to "simplify" the presidential election, as the main focus should be the platforms of the presidential contenders.
The Central Election Commission (CEC) decided to hold the proposed referendums alongside the presidential election on March 22.
Hung said she did not agree with holding the referendums with the election because referendums have become "tools of populism" for the parties.
Hung said she hoped the KMT would show "goodwill" and "patience" to the DPP, adding that both parties should focus on "reconstruction after the disaster" -- an apparent reference to the legislative elections.
The KMT won a landslide victory in Saturday's election, securing 81 of the 113 seats under the new "single district, two-vote" system. The DPP won 27.
Approached for comment, KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (
KMT Legislator Lu Shiow-yen (
Lu said she believed voters would take a "pragmatic" attitude vis-a-vis the two referendums, adding that referendums are merely means for the people to "express their opinion."
In response, DPP legislative caucus whip Wang Tuoh (
"We shall do whatever is good for Taiwan and its people," Wang said.
Wang did not respond to Hung's request that the DPP drop its own referendum bid. He said, however, that DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (
CEC Secretary-General Teng Tien-yu (鄧天祐), meanwhile, told the Taipei Times that the KMT "cannot withdraw the referendum proposal."
"According to Article 11 of the Referendum Act, a referendum may only be withdrawn before [the CEC] has asked [the initiators of a referendum] to submit petition signatures," he said.
A referendum proposal must first be submitted to the CEC with signatures of more than 0.5 percent of the number of voters qualified to vote in the last presidential election.
After the CEC approves the proposal, the original petitioner must then send a petition signed by more than 5 percent of the number of voters qualified to vote in the last presidential election. The petitioner can only withdraw the referendum proposal before the second part of the process has begun.
"The KMT has already handed in the signatures and we're almost done checking them," Teng said. "It's too late to take it back."
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY LOA IOK-SIN
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
TAIWAN ADVOCATES: The resolution, which called for the recognition of Taiwan as a country and normalized relations, was supported by 22 Republican representatives Two US representatives on Thursday reintroduced a resolution calling for the US to end its “one China” policy, resume formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan and negotiate a bilateral Taiwan-US free trade agreement. Republican US representatives Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania’s 10th District were backed by 22 Republican members of the US House of Representatives. The two congressmen first introduced the resolution together in 2021. The resolution called on US President Donald Trump to “abandon the antiquated ‘one China’ policy in favor of a policy that recognizes the objective reality that Taiwan is an independent country, not
The US-Japan joint statement released on Friday not mentioning the “one China” policy might be a sign that US President Donald Trump intends to decouple US-China relations from Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said. Following Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday, the US and Japan issued a joint statement where they reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Trump has not personally brought up the “one China” policy in more than a year, National Taiwan University Department of Political Science Associate Professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民)