A referendum on a proposed constitutional amendment to lower the voting age from 20 to 18 is to be held in conjunction with the local elections on Nov. 26, the Central Election Commission said on Friday.
To amend the Constitution, legislators must first pass a proposed amendment with at least three-fourths of all lawmakers present for the vote supporting the measure. Voters must then endorse it in a national referendum.
On March 25, the 113-seat Legislative Yuan voted 109-0 in favor of the revision. The referendum would require the support of at least half of all eligible voters to pass.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The commission defended holding the referendum on the same day as the local elections, saying that as the proposed amendment reflects a high degree of consensus from the ruling and opposition parties in the Legislative Yuan, the choice of referendum date “should take into consideration the effect of civic participation in constitutional reform.”
It also said that the local elections would not detract from the constitutional amendment or confuse voters about its meaning.
Voters would receive a maximum of five election ballots and one referendum ballot, it added.
The commission also said that the day of the local elections would be a public holiday, making it more convenient for businesses to organize shifts for their workers so they can vote, while combining the two votes would prevent people from gathering twice amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The commission had to defend its position because the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government has decoupled referendums from national elections.
The DPP successfully campaigned late last year to oppose a referendum that would have overturned an amendment to the Referendum Act (公民投票法) its lawmakers passed in June 2019 to separate referendums and elections.
Referendums on constitutional amendments are not subject to the act, and the threshold requiring the approval of 50 percent of eligible voters is double the approval required in normal referendums.
Civic groups cited the high threshold when supporting the plan to hold the referendum on the voting age on the same day as the local elections.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Friday said it respected the commission’s decision, but called on the DPP “to re-examine its use of double-standards.”
The KMT consistently called for referendums to be held concurrently with elections during the referendums last year, which the DPP opposes, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday.
“If the DPP had any sense of shame, it would publicly announce that it is wrong and the KMT is right,” he said, adding that his party also firmly supports absentee ballot voting, which the DPP does not.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiao-kuang
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS