A national referendum on activating the long-mothballed Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮) is set for Aug. 28, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said on Friday.
The Referendum Act (公民投票法) stipulates that national referendums can only be held once every two years, starting from this year, and only on the fourth Saturday of August.
Polling stations would open from 8am to 4pm, the commission said.
The agency is to announce the referendums on May 27, hold presentations on the referendum questions from May 28 to Aug. 27 and announce the number of voters eligible for the referendums by Aug. 24, it said.
The result of the referendums would be announced on Sept. 3, although unofficial results should be known the night of the vote, it said.
So far, only the nuclear power plant referendum initiative, launched by nuclear power proponent Huang Shih-hsiu (黃士修), has met the endorsement threshold required to be put to a vote.
It asks: “Do you agree that the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant should be activated for commercial operations?”
The plant, which was close to completion before being shelved in 2014, has been a focal point in debates over nuclear power.
Supporters have lauded it as a clean and relatively cheap energy solution to the problems of air quality and rising electricity costs.
Critics warn of the safety hazards of using the plant in particular and nuclear power in general, citing the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster in Japan.
Several initiatives remain in the works, including one to eliminate the restriction that referendums can only be held on the fourth Saturday of August in odd-numbered years.
For a referendum to pass, at least 25 percent of eligible voters must cast their ballot for it, setting a relatively high turnout threshold in a nonelection year, and it must also garner more votes in favor than opposed.
Initiating a referendum in Taiwan requires meeting endorsements in two phases — the first round requires signatures from at least 0.01 percent of eligible voters in the most recent presidential election, while the second round requires signatures from 1.5 percent of eligible voters.
There were 19.31 million eligible voters in last year’s presidential election.
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
RSS