The legislature’s Constitutional Amendment Committee yesterday reviewed draft proposals calling for a voting age of 18. Outside the Legislative Yuan complex in Taipei, social groups accused the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) of hijacking the voting age amendment draft by tying it to such draft proposals as absentee voting and the legislature’s power to approve the premiership.
The committee’s second review yesterday fiercely debated proposals to lower the voting age.
Whether the voting age should be lowered to 18 was not the stumbling block, but the procedure for reviewing amendment proposals and whether the committee should first achieve resolutions over the issue blocked progress.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers said the nature of the disputes showed that the KMT was not inclined toward lowering the voting age.
Meanwhile, high-school students and representatives from groups such as the Taiwan Alliance for Youth Rights, Taiwan Congress Watch and Taiwan Association for Human Rights gathered outside, accusing the KMT of taking voting age reform hostage and calling on DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) to “rescue the hostage.”
KMT caucus whip Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) insisted on May 9 that at the first stage of constitutional amendments, lowering the voting age, absentee voting and the legislature’s power to approve the premiership should be passed together.
“Take it or leave it,” Lai said to DPP opposition to the package.
The groups called Lai’s remarks “tantamount to an intimidation” and “in opposition to the essence of deliberation in democratic politics.”
While Lai was not present at the meeting yesterday, KMT lawmakers remained unwavering over their position that both a lowered voting age and absentee voting should be considered for “the expansion of citizens’ rights to political participation.”
The KMT voting age proposal was placed in a new article that includes absentee voting.
The DPP legislators said absentee voting represents “a method of voting” and should be regulated on a legal, rather than constitutional, level.
“We are not ‘hijacking’ the lowering of the voting age. There should be consistency in the attempt to secure citizens’ rights to political participation. Young people’s voting rights should be guaranteed, but so should the voting rights of the 1 million citizens who are not able to return home to vote,” KMT Legislator Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟) said. “And we are not making any changes to the rule that requires overseas citizens to return to Taiwan to vote.”
The KMT draft states that absentee voting details should be further legislated; another KMT absentee voting proposal includes all overseas citizens, except those in China.
Recent polls show that voters support the legislature’s power to approve the premiership, absentee voting and a lower electoral threshold for parties to enter the legislature more than they support a lower voting age, KMT Legislator Chiang Hui-chen (江惠貞) said.
“The amendment bills would — if passed by the legislature — be put to a referendum. It still remains a question of whether the referendum would be conducted in a way that requires voters to vote for or against the amendments en masse, so it is not appropriate for the DPP to accuse the KMT of ‘hijacking.’”
Meeting chairperson Lu intended to have all the related bills handed over to the general assembly as “bills reserved and awaiting further cross-party negotiation.”
DPP legislators disagreed with the attempt, urging the committee to present to the general assembly a resolution that indicates that the committee has reached consensus on the lowering of the voting age.
The committee had not come to a conclusion on the review at press time last night.
People can take the Taipei MRT free of charge if they access it at Nanjing Sanmin Station or Taipei Arena Station on the Green Line between 12am and 6am on Jan. 1, the Taipei Department of Transportation said on Friday, outlining its plans to ease crowding during New Year’s events in the capital. More than 200,000 people are expected to attend New Year’s Eve events in Taipei, with singer A-mei (張惠妹) performing at the Taipei Dome and the city government’s New Year’s Eve party at Taipei City Hall Plaza, the department said. As people have tended to use the MRT’s Blue or
Civil society groups yesterday protested outside the Legislative Yuan, decrying Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) efforts to pass three major bills that they said would seriously harm Taiwan’s democracy, and called to oust KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁). It was the second night of the three-day “Bluebird wintertime action” protests in Taipei, with organizers announcing that 8,000 people attended. Organized by Taiwan Citizen Front, the Economic Democracy Union (EDU) and a coalition of civil groups, about 6,000 people began a demonstration in front of KMT party headquarters in Taipei on Wednesday, organizers said. For the third day, the organizers asked people to assemble
Taipei is participating in Osaka’s Festival of Lights this year, with a 3m-tall bubble tea light installation symbolizing Taiwan’s bubble tea culture. The installation is designed as a bubble tea cup and features illustrations of Taipei’s iconic landmarks, such as Taipei 101, the Red House and North Gate, as well as soup dumplings and the matchmaking deity the Old Man Under the Moon (月下老人), affectionately known as Yue Lao (月老). Taipei and Osaka have collaborated closely on tourism and culture since Taipei first participated in the festival in 2018, the Taipei City Department of Information and Tourism said. In February, Osaka represented
Taiwanese professional baseball should update sports stadiums and boost engagement to enhance fans’ experience, Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) commissioner Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview on Friday. The league has urged Farglory Group and the Taipei City Government to improve the Taipei Dome’s outdated equipment, including relatively rudimentary television and sound systems, and poor technology, he said. The Tokyo Dome has markedly better television and sound systems, despite being 30 years old, because its managers continually upgraded its equipment, Tsai said. In contrast, the Taipei Dome lacked even a room for referees
RSS