Members of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and a civic group yesterday expressed objections to a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) push to allow absentee and mail-in voting in elections.
“The bill to allow absentee voting should first apply to national referendums so that the Central Election Commission can evaluate its feasibility. Only after that should it apply to elections,” DPP Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said yesterday.
“It is safer to do it this way, as the commission can detect problems, make corrections and revise the procedure,” Wu said.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The DPP is opposed to the KMT bill, which the Taiwan People’s Party also supports, that would apply to all local and national elections, including presidential elections.
The bill would also enable mail-in ballots.
Currently, Taiwan’s election law requires people to vote in their “home district” where their household registration is, and it is common for students and people working in big cities to travel to their hometown to cast ballots.
“Amending the law to allow absentee [and mail-in] voting in elections is a big change, and there is no full agreement on how to proceed on that, so Taiwanese society should reach a consensus first,” Wu said.
There are risks concerning the application of absentee or mail-in voting in China, she said.
“If we allow absentee [and mail-in] voting, it would pose some dangers to Taiwan’s democracy. An enemy state could try to use it to subvert the democratic process, so it should be handled with extreme caution,” she added.
Taiwanese should oppose the bill, as it would make it easier for China to interfere in elections, Taiwan Economic Democracy Union convener Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said.
“For both absentee voting and mail-in ballot methods, the biggest risk is that Beijing could use financial pressure to mobilize Taiwanese doing business in China to vote for certain candidates or political parties it favors,” Lai said.
He urged lawmakers not to allow absentee voting in Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, as they are extremely close to China.
“The Chinese government in the past launched such mobilization campaigns, providing low-cost air tickets and other incentives for Taiwanese working in China to return where their household registration is to vote in Taiwan’s elections,” Lai said.
“We have warned about this for years, but the government still has no effective way to deal with it, as it is difficult to investigate and find solid evidence of vote-buying, which might have happened beyond its jurisdiction,” he added.
On the other hand, KMT Legislator Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said that “many democratic countries, including the US, have absentee voting, so we can follow its method and introduce such a bill to move our country forward.”
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