One spillover effect of voters using ballots to punish the ruling party — the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) — was the failure to pass a proposed constitutional amendment to grant Taiwanese aged 18 years or older the right to vote and the right to run for public office, academics said yesterday.
The referendum needed 9,619,697 “yes” votes to pass, but the Central Election Committee (CEC) data showed that the voter turnout was 58.97 percent, with 5,647,102 voting “yes” and 5,016,427 voting “no” for the proposal.
The data showed that in all six special municipalities, the “yes” side won over the “no” side in votes, but only by a slight margin.
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
There were more “yes” votes than “no” votes in eight cities and counties, including Hsinchu County, Miaoli County, Nantou County, Hualien County, Taitung County, Kinmen County, Lienchiang County and Keelung.
In the five cities and counties where the DPP won in the race for mayor or commissioner — Chiayi County, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Pingtung County and Penghu County — the “yes” votes exceeded the “no” votes.
The cities or counties with the highest percentage of “yes” votes among eligible voters were Chiayi County (33.84 percent), Pingtung County (33.78 percent), Taipei (32.48 percent), Yilan County (32.45 percent) and Yunlin County (32.42 percent).
The other approval rates in other cities and counties ranged from 20 to 30 percent, with the exception of Kinmen County, which was only 10.65 percent.
The proposed voting age amendment was supported by legislators across party lines, but it failed to pass the national referendum.
Soochow University law professor Hu Po-yen (胡博硯) said a possible reason is that many traditional pan-blue camp voters believe young people mostly support the DPP, so they are concerned about losing support by allowing 18-year-olds vote.
Also, some voters appeared to use their ballots to punish the DPP, so they might have voted against the DPP’s preference in the referendum, he said.
As each political party had supported the referendum and there was no opposition, the issue failed to create public discussion, Hu added.
Chu Chao-hsiang (曲兆祥), a professor at National Taiwan Normal University’s Graduate Institute of Political Science, said although the “yes” votes exceeded the “no” votes, it could be misleading, as voters who were against the proposal could have refused to receive their referendum ballot.
There are also some people — in pan-blue and pan-green camps, mostly elderly people — who are concerned that 18-year-olds are not mature enough to vote or run for elected positions, Chu said.
More than 10 million people voted in the referendum, but the result indicated that Taiwanese society is still undecided on the issue, DPP Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) said.
The threshold for the constitutional amendment is very high and difficult to pass, he added.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip William Tseng (曾銘宗) said granting voting and civil rights to 18-year-olds is a global norm, and the referendum proposal was supported by legislators across party lines, but there were many “no” votes on Saturday, implying that society does not have a consensus on the issue.
DPP Legislator Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟), who lobbied for the amendment, said that although most democratic countries grant 18-year-olds suffrage, Taiwan’s democracy is relatively young, having endured for only about 30 years.
However, having more “yes” than “no” votes can be considered progress, Chao added.
Asked if the proposal could be introduced again, Lo said it could be difficult to gain enough support in a short time, and Tseng said it must be pushed for again, but more planning and communication with residents would be needed.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS