A task force assembled by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus charged with reviewing optional amendments of the Referendum Act (公民投票法) met on Tuesday for the first time.
The DPP said that it felt it was necessary to reform the act after last month’s chaos, when referendums were held alongside the nine-in-one elections.
Task force members said they discussed measures to prevent fraud — such as using the names of deceased people on referendum petitions, which happened last month — as well as the establishment of a separate day for referendum voting.
Photo: CNA
The latter would be necessary to prevent local elections and referendums from interfering with each other, they said.
The task force hopes to deliberate on the specifics of a draft amendment at its next meeting, pending the finalization of the party caucus’ draft.
DPP legislators Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋), Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康), Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧), Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀) and Shih Yi-fang (施義芳) have already submitted their versions of the draft.
During the meeting, it was proposed that a set day be established for referendum voting to provide sufficient time for voters to read and understand each item.
Human Rights Day on Dec. 10 was offered as a possibility, although no consensus was reached on the issue.
Members proposed different ideas about how to address election fraud.
Tuan’s draft suggests giving more authority to the Central Election Commission to scrutinize the wording of referendums, which should be simple, clearly understandable and “not twist the facts.”
A mechanism is needed to ensure that signatures are not forged, such as requiring a national ID card for each signature, he said.
There must be ways to establish the validity of signatures, he said, adding that the commission should create a system whereby voters could check whether their identity has been fraudulently used to sign any referendums.
Su suggested that referendums be rejected if a certain number of their signatures were found to be invalid, and that voting on a referendum should not be held until six months after it passes the threshold.
Su also suggested keeping referendum voting on the same day as national elections to conserve resources.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS