The New Power Party (NPP) yesterday urged the Central Election Commission to postpone four referendums scheduled for next month, citing COVID-19 concerns.
The commission is today to discuss whether the referendums should be held on Aug. 28 as planned.
NPP Chairwoman Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) said that the government and the private sector have been focused on curbing a nationwide COVID-19 outbreak, and the Central Epidemic Command Center has extended a level 3 pandemic alert until July 12.
The outbreak has impeded discussions and campaigns on the important public policy issues to be put to a vote in the referendums, she said, urging the government to postpone them until the COVID-19 situation has eased and large gatherings can be conducted safely.
The Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, which is reportedly 60 percent more transmissible than the virus’ Alpha variant, poses a great risk in Taiwan and worldwide, she said.
Even if the commission holds the referendums on the scheduled date, comprehensive disease prevention measures should be put in place to ensure that voting does not pose an increased risk of infection, Chen said.
NPP secretary-general Christy Pai (白卿芬) said that Article 23 of the Referendum Act (公民投票法) leaves little room for rescheduling the vote, even under pandemic conditions, as it stipulates that referendums should be held on the fourth Saturday of August every two years.
However, the commission meeting would discuss whether it can evoke Article 66 of the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), which would authorize the agency to reschedule the vote under the condition that “a natural disaster or force majeure prior to the polling day or on the polling and ballot counting day may have happened or predictably happen.”
If this path proves not viable, the Democratic Progressive Party administration, which in 2019 pushed the amendment to the Referendum Act that imposed stricter rules, should once again amend the act to break the impasse, she said.
The four issues to be voted on are whether the mothballed Fourth Nuclear Power Plant should be activated for commercial operations; whether CPC Corp, Taiwan’s third liquefied natural gas terminal should be relocated from its planned site off the coast of Datan Borough (大潭) in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音); whether a total ban should be imposed on the importation of pork products containing leanness enhancing additives; and whether referendums should be held on the same day as national elections if the election is scheduled to take place within six months of the approval of a referendum proposal.
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