The majority of Taiwanese oppose abolishing the death penalty and think such a decision should be made through a referendum, a poll released yesterday showed.
More than 80 percent of respondents in the survey, conducted by a new think tank founded by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強), said they oppose abolishing the death penalty and a Constitutional Court judgement on capital punishment.
Fifty-seven percent of respondents said the Constitution should be amended to limit the court’s power, while 65.8 percent said a public referendum on the death penalty should be held in 2026.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
In September, the Constitutional Court ruled that although the death penalty conforms with the Constitution, it should only be applied in “exceptional” cases.
KMT lawmakers criticized the ruling, saying “it effectively abolished capital punishment in Taiwan.”
The poll showed that the majority of Taiwanese want a referendum on capital punishment to be held alongside the 2026 general election, Lo told a news conference yesterday.
“More than 80 percent of people disagree with the Constitutional Court’s ruling on capital punishment. The justices should reflect on why their public support has diminished recently,” he said.
As a ruling by the Constitutional Court cannot be overturned, Taiwanese want to a referendum on the matter, he said.
That 57 percent of Taiwanese think the Constitution should be amended to limit the Constitutional Court’s power suggests that recent judgements issued by the justices do not align with public opinion, KMT Legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) said.
“The public feels their rights have been infringed upon by the justices’ judgement on the death penalty... When the justices go against the will of the people, direct democracy and public opinion should be exercised,” KMT Legislator Weng Hsiao-ling (翁曉玲) said.
People cannot accept that the justices have directed the legislature to amend the law according to their rulings, KMT Legislator Ye Yuan-zhi (葉元之) added.
Even among the survey’s respondents who self-identified as pan-green camp supporters, there is significant agreement on these issues, which places enormous pressure on the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, Chinese Culture University professor Niu Tse-hsun (鈕則勳) said.
“The ruling party and the Central Election Commission should respect the will of the people and address their calls for a referendum on the death penalty,” he said.
The Apollo Survey and Research Co conducted the poll from Oct. 14 to Oct. 17 among Taiwanese aged 18 or older by phone. The survey had 1,081 valid samples, and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
RSS