Deputy Minister of the Interior Chien Tai-lang (簡太郎) said the ministry plans to push for absentee voting next year to better protect the right to vote.
“We are working on amendments to electoral laws to allow absentee voting so that the right to vote of those who cannot make it back to their home electoral districts would not be compromised,” Chien said in response to a question from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) about the ministry’s plans during a meeting of the Internal Administration Committee.
Chien said the ministry would probably finish its draft proposal and submit it to Cabinet and the legislative next year.
Because it might be a complicated system to implement, Chien said that initially absentee voting would only be used for presidential and legislative polls, and only military personnel, police officers, election officials and disabled people would be eligible.
“More than 20 advanced democratic countries have adopted an absentee voting system,” Chien said. “As Taiwan is becoming a more mature democracy, I think it’s about time for us to adopt the system.”
Wu asked the MOI to push forward the proposal.
KMT Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) also praised the move.
“Fifteen percent of our citizens do not live at their registered home address — they may be working away from home, studying or doing business abroad — and the government should work to protect their right to vote,” Ting said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers have reservations about the proposal because of the “China factor.”
“There are tens of thousands of our citizens living in China. I would be very concerned if they could really express their opinion freely through absentee voting,” and it would be of concern to think that the Chinese government might be able to influence Taiwan’s elections by telling Taiwanese living in China whom to vote for, DPP Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) said.
Meanwhile, nearly 90 percent of respondents to a Central Election Commission (CEC) survey said that they preferred elections to be held on Saturdays, the commission said in a press release yesterday.
DDP Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) has suggested a change because many blue-collar workers still work on Saturdays and may not be able to vote.
The commission received 1,124 valid samples to its survey in July and found that 87.2 percent of respondents prefer elections be held on Saturdays, with only 7.9 percent saying it would be “inconvenient.”
While 57.4 percent of respondents supported moving elections to Sundays, 30.6 percent were opposed.
‘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