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.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS