The government and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus would not initiate any referendum proposals to counter a referendum on key policy issues that is scheduled to be held in August.
The consensus was reached at a DPP meeting convened by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who is also the DPP chairperson, on Sunday, which was attended by officials from the Presidential Office, the Cabinet, the DPP, legislators and mayors, Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang (張惇涵) said.
If the DPP or government agencies wanted to introduce any referendum initiatives of their own, they would have to submit their proposals by the end of this week in accordance with the Legislative Yuan’s timetable for referendums, Chang said.
With the deadline looming, the DPP held the meeting to discuss whether to introduce its own proposals to counter referendum questions that generally oppose DPP policies.
During the meeting, Tsai instructed government agencies to give top priority to handling the aftermath of a fatal train crash in Hualien on April 2 that left 49 people dead, and help the injured and the families of those who died in the accident.
She added that as the ruling party, the DPP has the responsibility to clarify the upcoming referendum issues to help ease public concerns and help people make the right choice, Chang said.
DPP sources said that the consensus came as most participants in the meeting thought the government should focus its efforts on dealing with the aftermath of the nation’s worst rail disaster in decades and reforming the Taiwan Railways Administration.
Voters are to answer four questions in the referendum on Aug. 28 on whether they support: one, the government’s decision to lift a ban on pork imports containing ractopamine; two, construction of a receiving terminal for natural gas, which could threaten Taoyuan’s Datan Algal Reef; three, activation of the mothballed Fourth Nuclear Power Plant; and four, holding referendums on the same day as national elections.
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