Sat, May 08, 2021 page3

• Referendum proposals reach signature threshold

  NATIONWIDE EVENTS: The KMT said it would hold events in 21 cities and counties to promote its proposals on the scheduling of referendums and pork import policy

  • Staff writer, with CNA
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  Referendum proposals on protecting the Datan algal reefs, barring pork imports containing ractopamine and how to schedule referendums have received enough signatures to advance, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said yesterday.

  However, a final decision on whether the proposals would be put to a vote is expected on Friday next week, after a commission review, it said.

  If the three proposed referendums are approved, they are expected to be conducted on Aug. 28 alongside a proposal to restart work on the mothballed Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮).

  The nuclear referendum was approved last year and is to be voted on that day, the CEC said.

  Rescue Datan’s Algal Reefs Alliance convener Pan Chong-cheng (潘忠政) last year initiated a referendum proposal aimed at protecting reefs off Datan Village (大潭) in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音) amid plans to build a CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC) liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal.

  It gained 643,371 valid signatures, far surpassing the required level, the commission said.

  The proposed referendum would ask: “Do you agree that CPC’s LNG terminal should be relocated from its planned site on the algal reef coast of Datan and its adjacent waters?”

  Two referendum questions proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) also cleared the second of two hurdles before being put to a vote.

  One of them is aimed at overriding the Democratic Progressive Party government’s policy easing restrictions on imports of pork products with residue of the livestock drug ractopamine, with the petition garnering 461,594 valid signatures.

  The proposal was initiated by KMT Legislator Lin Wei-chou (林為洲), which asks: “Do you agree to a total ban on the importation of pork and related products containing leanness enhancing additives (ractopamine and other beta agonists)?”

  A referendum initiated by KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) asks: “Do you agree that a referendum should be held concurrently with a national election if it complies with the Referendum Act (公民投票法) and if the election is set to take place within a six-month period following the referendum’s establishment?”

  That proposal gained 456,100 valid signatures, the commission said.

  There are two hurdles to clear to get a referendum initiative to a vote. The first requires the signatures of 0.01 percent of the eligible voters in the most recent presidential election, which would be 1,931 people based on the 19,311,105 people eligible to vote in last year’s vote. In the second stage, an initiative must collect the signatures of 1.5 percent of eligible voters in the most recent presidential election, or 289,667 people.

  For a referendum to pass, at least 25 percent of eligible voters, or about 5 million people, must vote for it, and votes for must exceed votes against.

  The KMT yesterday announced that tomorrow it is to hold events in 21 cities and counties to promote its referendum proposals.
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