At least 5 million “yes” votes are needed for a referendum on restarting a nuclear facility to succeed, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said yesterday.
The question in Saturday’s referendum reads: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant should continue operation upon approval by the competent authority and confirmation that there are no safety concerns?”
The facility in Pingtung County’s Hengchun Township (恆春) ceased generating electricity in May after its service life ended.
Photo: CNA
As stipulated by the Referendum Act (公民投票法), the referendum would pass only if votes in favor account for more than a quarter of the total eligible voters and outnumber the votes against.
The act’s Article 8 says that: “A person entitled to vote in a referendum who has resided in the Republic of China ... for at least six consecutive months may” vote in referendum as long as they are at least 18 and “have not been declared incompetent.”
The number of people eligible to vote is 20,002,091, CEC data showed, translating to 5,000,523 votes as part of a majority for the referendum to succeed.
The end of power generation at the plant in May means Taiwan has no operating nuclear power facilities.
While the move aligns with the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) policy of phasing out nuclear power, it has raised questions over the resilience of the electricity grid and cost efficiency.
Among those supporting an extension of the Ma-anshan plant’s service are people who once backed the DPP’s “nuclear-free homeland” policy, including Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) and Pegatron Corp chairman Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢).
The TPP proposed the referendum in the legislature in April, and the bill passed in May with backing from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
The referendum is to be held alongside the second wave of recall votes targeting seven KMT lawmakers: one in New Taipei City, three in Taichung, one in Hsinchu County and two in Nantou County.
The recall votes follow a landslide failure late last month, when civic groups and the DPP attempted to recall 24 KMT lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安), a former TPP member.
None of the seven lawmakers involved in Saturday’s recall are considered at risk of losing their seats.
President William Lai (賴清德) last week said that he would vote “no” in the referendum.
Asked whether he would vote in the referendum, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said that he cherishes every opportunity to vote and would respect the results of the referendum.
Cho said he believes in science and that the government would follow procedures to conduct safety inspections at the power plant to ensure it would operate safely in the event that the referendum passes.
“We must also ensure a proper disposal of nuclear waste and people in Taiwan can reach a consensus on these critical issues,” Cho said.
The Nuclear Safety Commission would stipulate procedures that Taiwan Power Co should follow to conduct safety inspections at the facility, he said.
Additional reporting by Liu Wan-ling
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