Two referendums put forward by opposition lawmakers failed to pass prior to the deadline to be held in August, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus said today.
The KMT and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) have proposed a combined four referendums.
A question on opposing martial law and another opposing the abolition of the death penalty were put forward by the KMT, while the TPP put forward a question on voting from other districts and another on restarting the recently decommissioned No. 2 nuclear reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant.
Photo: Taipei Times
The KMT said the referendums on opposing martial law and voting failed to meet the submission deadline due to the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) attempts to block them through long speeches and delaying proceedings, while the DPP said it was due to their vague wording.
The legislature on Friday last week approved the referendum on opposing the death penalty’s abolition, and on Tuesday approved the question on restarting the nuclear reactor.
The referendums on the death penalty and martial law are intended to safeguard the nation’s democratic values, the KMT caucus said in a news release today.
The two referendums would have been voted on by the public on Aug. 23, but missed the deadline and would not be put to a national vote this year.
The DPP is afraid of the people and what the referendums might result in, the KMT said.
The KMT would continue to defend Taiwan’s democracy, it said, adding that it would monitor President William Lai (賴清德) so that he cannot emulate former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol, who in December last year declared a short-lived period of martial law.
Given that the KMT and TPP hold a legislative majority, there is no proposal they would not be able to pass, DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said.
The KMT abandoned the martial law referendum, as it did not have public support, was vaguely worded and would not pass scrutiny, Wu said.
The opposition also unilaterally changed the legislative agenda to allow a vote on the TPP’s late-submitted referendum on the nuclear reactor, she added.
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