A KMT lawmaker said yesterday that most of Taiwan's people support the proposal to allow absentee voting in general elections.
Quoting the results of a public opinion poll conducted by a KMT think tank, Legislator Huang Teh-fu (黃德福) said nearly 65 percent of the respondents gave a thumbs-up to the idea of allowing absentee voting.
"Therefore, I suggest that absentee voting be tried on an experimental basis in the year-end Taipei and Kaohsiung mayoral elections," Huang said at the news conference where the KMT poll results were released.
Huang said 21 democratic countries around the world have adopted absentee voting to protect the voting rights of all of their citizens.
The absentee voting methods implemented by these countries can be grouped into four categories in which absentee voters can either vote by mailing in votes, or by naming a surrogate, or by voting in special polling stations or by casting their ballots at their place of work.
Huang said the government can legislate a temporary statute to regulate absentee voting on an experimental basis in the Taipei and Kaohsiung mayoral elections to be held late this year.
Since the existing Election and Recall Law (選舉罷免法) already allows election workers to cast their ballots at places where their work is located, instead of places where their legal abode is situated, Huang said it won't be difficult to experiment with absentee voting in the year-end elections.
As the Constitution has set forth the voting qualifications for overseas Taiwanese citizens, Huang said that absentee voting rights should be confined to military service members, the police, medical professionals, prison workers and inmates.
"Initial tallies show these specific workers number more than 3 million," Huang said.
He added that Taiwan should adopt absentee voting as early as possible in order to protect these people's civil rights.
Huang said he will come up with a draft of the proposed statute on absentee voting for the upcoming Taipei and Kaohsiung mayoral elections by the end of the month.
According to the recent KMT poll of 1,079 randomly selected adults in Taiwan, 64.8 percent support the adoption of absentee voting, while 23 percent oppose the proposal.
Meanwhile, the survey re-sults also showed that 64.9 percent gave a thumbs-down to the proposal to lower the minimum voting age to 18 years of age, 25.6 percent said they support the proposal, and 9.5 percent would not express their opinion on the issue.
"In view of expanding political participation, we'll continue promoting the proposal to win popular support," Huang said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS