The Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration Committee today passed an initial review of draft amendments that would lower the voting age from 20 to 18.
The committee reviewed draft amendments to the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) and Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法).
As the amendments could first require a constitutional interpretation by the Constitutional Court, the committee adopted a supplementary resolution urging the legislature’s Constitutional Amendment Committee to simultaneously begin reviewing relevant amendments to the Constitution.
Photo: CNA
Lowering the voting age to 18 is a global trend and there is cross-partisan consensus in the legislature, the resolution stated.
Article 130 of the Constitution states that citizens must be at least 20 years of age to vote, and the high threshold for passing constitutional amendments has blocked efforts to lower the voting age over the past decade.
Since the drafting of the Constitution, the Civil Code has been amended to lower the age of adulthood from 20 to 18, though voting rights have yet to follow suit.
The Constitution also sets 23 as the minimum age to be elected as a public official.
Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) today reported to the Internal Administration Committee.
As of the end of February, Taiwan had 411,731 citizens aged 18 to 20, she said.
If the voting age were to be lowered, 70 percent of new voters would be registered within the six special municipalities, she added.
The changes could raise concerns over the next election cycle, which cannot be resolved by administrative interpretation alone, and could ultimately need judicial clarification, she said.
The Executive Yuan is not the authoritative body on constitutional interpretations, she added.
The amendments would increase the voting population by an estimated 410,000 people, said Wang Hsiao-lin (王曉麟), head of the Central Election Commission’s Department of Electoral Affairs.
It would involve considerable extra work to change to polling booths and electoral registers before the local elections on Nov. 28, he said.
If the amendments are not passed before the election notice is released on Aug. 20, the old system would remain in place, he added.
The draft amendments must first undergo party caucus negotiations before being submitted to the plenary session for discussion, Internal Administration Committee convenor and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Liao Hsien-hsiang (廖先翔) said.
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