As presidential candidates increase their efforts to canvass support from first-time voters, lawmakers from across party lines are mulling whether to amend the law to lower the legal voting age to 18 years.
However, some academics cast doubt on the idea, saying that lowering the legal voting age would require a constitutional amendment.
According to Article 130 of the Constitution, citizens of the Republic of China (ROC) have the right to vote when they are 20 years old and “unless otherwise stipulated in the Constitution or in other laws, citizens of the ROC have the right to be voted for when they are legally 23 years old.”
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the New Party tried to lower the legal voting age when earlier amendments were made to the Constitution. Those moves were blocked by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
In an effort to lower the legal voting age, DPP Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) concluded a petition to amend the Constitution and handed it to the Constitutional Amendment Committee on May 13.
Currently, an amendment to the Constitution not only requires that it be proposed by at least a quarter of all legislators, that at least three-quarters of all legislators vote and that the vote be passed by three-quarters of voting legislators, it also needs to be ratified by a referendum with over 50 percent of voters voting in favor.
KMT Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中), proposed a way to circumvent the need to introduce a constitutional amendment, suggesting that the relevant laws could be amended by the Legislative Yuan.
Ting described as ludicrous the situation whereby ROC citizens who are 18 years old are legally responsible for any criminal behavior they engage in and eligible for mandatory military service, but still unable to vote.
Ting argued that his proposal did not necessitate an amendment to the Constitution because in a case where the Constitution directly undermines people’s rights, it should be interpreted loosely.
Whether or not to grant young adults under 20 years of age the right to vote should be a discretionary decision for legislators, Ting said.
However, an earlier forum hosted by the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) on the issue was unanimous in its opinion that the lowering of the legal voting age necessitated an amendment to the Constitution that could not be circumvented.
According to National Taiwan University department of political science professor Hwang Giin-tarng (黃錦堂), a proponent for lowering the legal voting age to 18 years of age, the Constitution is very explicit and to make a different interpretation of “legally 20 years old” would knock loose other articles and make it untenable. That view was echoed by Liao Da-chi (廖達琪), director of National Sun Yat-sen University’s institute of political science.
Aside from mulling changes to the legal age for voting, a number of DPP lawmakers have also been actively proposed amendments so that general elections held on Sundays, as well as extending voting hours, in a bid to ensure laborers who have to work on polling day are still able to vote.
The Central Election Commission traditionally sets polling days on Saturdays, with voting taking place from 8am until 4pm.
In light of the MOI’s pushing of absentee voting last year, DPP legislators feel that they should prioritize the voting rights of citizens who live in Taiwan, adding that extending voting hours for laborers having to work on Saturday would protect their right to vote.
DPP legislators said that neither the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act ( 總統副總統選舉罷免法) nor the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選罷法) explicitly designated Saturday as polling day, nor did they stipulate how many hours should be allowed for voting.
However, the commission opposes the extension in voting hours, saying that when such a measure was adopted during the 2009 mayoral and county commissioner elections, there was no visible increase in voter turnout, suggesting the two matters are not closely connected.
Besides, an extension in voting hours would cause election personnel to be overburdened and delay the opening time of the ballots, as well as increasing security risks during transport, the commission said.
On the matter of holding voting on Sunday, Central Electioon Commission Secretary-General Teng Tien-yu (鄧天祐) added that if there was a delay in the counting of ballots, it would directly impact the next working day. That said, Teng added that he remained neutral about the proposal.
TRANSLATED BY JAKE CHUNG, STAFF WRITER.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
RSS