The Constitutional Court on Friday upheld the constitutionality of legal provisions used to punish people who have changed their household registration to vote where they did not live, work or study.
The grand justices found the three provisions under Article 146 of the Criminal Code to be constitutional, because what constitutes illegality is clearly defined and does not infringe on people’s rights to equality, vote and move freely as enshrined in the Constitution.
The punishment is also proportional, Chief Justice Hsu Tzong-li (許宗力) said.
Photo: Wu Cheng-feng, Taipei Times
Article 146 states that a person who illegally intervenes in voting or falsifies voting results, fraudulently changes their household registration to be eligible to vote in a different constituency or attempts to commit such offenses, faces up to five years in prison.
Taiwan’s voting laws are tethered to the household registration system, whereby citizens have to register their primary abode with the government. Eligible voters then have to cast their ballot at a polling booth in an electoral district where they have been registered for a minimum of four consecutive months prior to an election.
Twenty people found guilty of offenses under the article in five elections that took place from 2006 to 2018 asked the grand justices to rule on the constitutionality of the provisions, citing the constitutional right to vote and freedom to choose a residence, among other reasons.
One of the 20, a resident of then-Taipei County (now New Taipei City), surnamed Hu (胡), registered as living in Hualien in February 2006, enabling him to cast a ballot for his uncle who was running for village warden in June that year. He moved his household registration back to Taipei County after the election, and was chargedwith voting interference.
The Hualien District Court sentenced Hu to two months in jail, which could be converted to a fine and one year of deprivation of civil rights. The ruling was later upheld by the High Court in the final verdict.
In another case, Liu Huei-tsung (劉惠宗) and the other two members of China Airlines’ labor union were found guilty of moving their household registrations in Taipei to Taoyuan in July 2018, so that they could vote for their colleague in the Taoyuan mayoral election in November that year.
They each received a three-month sentence, which could be converted to a fine, two-years probation and deprivation of civil rights for one year. The Supreme Court upheld that ruling.
Despite ruling in favor of the constitutionality of Article 146, which the trio were found to have breached, the Constitutional Court ordered a retrial at the Supreme Court, saying that it failed to take into account that the union members had commuted to work in Taoyuan for 20 to 30 years, despite all living in Taipei.
Taiwanese can choose their place of residence or work for household registration, and given that the three union members met the four-month threshold to vote in the Taoyuan mayoral election after they registered households in the city, the Supreme Court’s ruling was tantamount to an infringement of their right to vote, the Constitutional Court said.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition