Two referendum proposals on drafting a new constitution are to be sent to the Central Election Commission on Thursday, a pro-independence group said yesterday.
Taiwan New Constitution Foundation executive director Lin Yi-cheng (林宜正) said that the initiatives have so far garnered more than 3,000 signatures apiece, surpassing the required threshold of 1,931 as stipulated in the Referendum Act (公民投票法), which sets the threshold at 0.01 percent of the electorate in the most recent presidential election — which would be 19.31 million eligible voters.
If the commission approves the proposals, the foundation would have to collect more than 289,667 signatures in the second stage of the three-step process to hold a referendum, he said.
A referendum would be on Aug. 28 next year if the commission verifies that the signatures have exceeded the threshold for a referendum, Lin said.
“Voters would be asked two questions: ‘Do you support the president in initiating a constitution reform process for the country?’ and ‘Do you support the president in pushing for the establishment of a new constitution reflecting the reality of Taiwan?’” Lin said.
The referendum would be declared valid if 25 percent of the electorate votes, or about 5 million ballots cast, and a majority votes in favor, he said.
If the two proposals pass, it would show that more than 5 million Taiwanese support forming a new constitution, which would be a foundation upon which the government could act, he said.
Should the government decide to write a new constitution, it would have to hold a national conference to confirm details and procedures before another round of national-level meetings on drafting a new constitution, he said.
Should draft bills for a new constitution be completed, a national-level vote would be held to endorse it, Lin added.
The foundation was formed last year by Taiwan independence advocate Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏), with the aim of pushing for a new constitution.
The foundation believes that the Constitution, adopted in China in 1947 before the Republic of China government relocated to Taiwan in 1949, does not fit Taiwan, despite having been amended seven times since 1996, Lin said.
A new constitution is needed to differentiate Taiwan from China, to assert the nation’s sovereignty and raise awareness among Taiwanese, he said.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS