The Green Party Taiwan has begun gathering signatures for a petition to hold a referendum on whether lawmakers should amend the Additional Articles of the Constitution to better reflect the “current needs” of the nation.
The referendum question proposed by the party would ask voters if they agree that an article should be added to the Act Governing the Legislative Yuan’s Power (立法院職權行使法) stipulating that members of the 10th Legislative Yuan should before May 20, 2022, review and pass an amendment to the additional articles to replace “to meet the requisites of the nation prior to national unification” with “to meet the current needs of the nation,” and then, according to procedures described in Article 12 of the additional articles, hold a referendum on the constitutional amendment.
The 10th Legislative Yuan is the current term.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Taiwan should “cut its legal relationship with China,” Green Party Taiwan convener Yu Hsiao-ching (余筱菁) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
China has continued to suppress Taiwan globally, which has left the nation unable to “participate normally in international society” and negatively “affected the survival and development of Taiwanese,” she said.
The Constitution in its current form “is not a constitution that represents Taiwan,” Yu said. “This Constitution has never applied to Taiwan’s current situation.”
The young generation needs a new constitution, Green Party Taiwan Secretary-General Rita Jhang (張竹芩) said.
By the end of this month, the party expects to reach the signature threshold for the first stage of the proposed referendum — one-10,000th of the total electorate in the most recent presidential election — as stipulated by the Referendum Act (公民投票法), she said.
Based on Central Election Commission data showing that there were about 19.31 million eligible voters in the Jan. 11 presidential election, the party would need to collect roughly 1,931 signatures to pass the initial threshold to launch the referendum.
The party was asked to comment on President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) saying in her second inaugural address on May 20 that she would continue to handle cross-strait affairs according to the Constitution and the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例).
“This has been our consistent position for maintaining the peaceful and stable ‘status quo’ in the Taiwan Strait,” Tsai said.
Yu said that the Green Party Taiwan supported Tsai in the election and could understand the president’s “more conservative” view on the matter.
However, the party still believes that Taiwan should draw a clear line regarding its relationship with China, she said.
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