Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) today said that electronic voting by Taiwanese living abroad was "completely unfeasible" due to potential manipulation by China.
"We cannot consider or accept overseas electronic voting at this stage," Cho told lawmakers at the Legislative Yuan, signaling the Cabinet's opposition to a referendum proposal raised by the Taiwan People's Party (TPP) last week.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The risk of overseas voters being subject to "control by foreign hostile forces" in elections was "too great," Cho said in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin I-chin's (林宜瑾) question about Chinese threat to Taiwan's democracy.
The TPP's bill, which was submitted directly to second reading, aims to allow eligible voters to cast ballots outside their registered electoral district by legalizing domestic transfer voting.
Lin criticized the TPP for failing to define clearly the definitions of absentee voting and domestic transfer voting in its proposal.
Some lawmakers have also expressed concern that the bill could pave the way for future implementation of absentee or electronic voting systems.
Cho drew a sharp distinction between overseas and domestic voting reforms, saying the latter "could be discussed by everyone," but only within the context of national elections, not local ones.
He cautioned that allowing voters from across the country to cast ballots in a single local race would lead to "big difficulties."
Central Election Commission Chairman Lee Chin-yung (李進勇) told lawmakers that the executive branch had been reviewing absentee voting for some time, but said that it would be "extremely serious" if any policy impacted the stability of electoral work.
He added that discussions were still ongoing and any further steps would be taken only after sufficient safeguards were put in place.
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
RSS