Kinmen County residents yesterday voted against legalizing gambling in the outlying county.
The referendum question, formulated by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Kinmen County Councilor Tsai Chun-sheng (蔡春生), asked Kinmen residents whether they supported establishing an “international holiday resort complex” with 5 percent of its space designated for gambling.
Results released by the Kinmen County Election Commission at about 6pm yesterday showed that turnout was 24.17 percent among 114,426 eligible voters, with 24,368, or 90.01 percent, voting “No,” and 2,705, or 9.99 percent, voting “Yes.”
Photo: Wu Cheng-ting, Taipei Times
The polls were open from 8am until 4pm.
An additional 589 null votes were also cast, the commission said.
Kinmen County Commissioner Chen Fu-hai (陳福海) and KMT Legislator Yang Chen-wu (楊鎮浯), whose constituency is in Kinmen, both cast a “No” vote.
Speaking to reporters after casting his ballot, Chen said that the question of whether to build casinos in Kinmen showed that the county’s growth had reached a bottleneck.
He called on governments on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to place more emphasis on Kinmen’s development.
“Gambling is not the only option for Kinmen,” he said, adding that the county, as the nation’s outpost, has an abundance of relics dating back to the Chinese Civil War and traditional Minnan-style buildings and rustic attractions.
Yang said he was “glad” about the outcome, which demonstrated the residents’ “collective wisdom.”
“It showed that Kinmen folks were thinking about development in the long term, instead of being shortsighted and allowing themselves to be lured by profits close at hand,” Yang said.
Alliance Against the Legalization of Gambling executive director Ho Tsung-hsun (何宗勳) said that there were three contributing factors to the outcome.
First, civic awareness in Kinmen has grown in recent years and many residents that are not members of groups opposed to gambling have been campaigning against casinos by making and distributing promotional tools, Ho said.
Second, Kinmen’s demography is mostly comprised of civil servants, giving it a more conservative social setting that is unfavorable to gambling, he said.
China, which has been unequivocal in opposing gambling, also played a role in the outcome, he said.
The Xiamen Daily on the eve of the referendum published an opinion piece by the Chinese government criticizing gambling, which could have had an effect on voters, he said.
In addition, many young Kinmen residents are worried about casinos driving up house prices, Ho said.
The referendum outcome indicates that neither the pan-green nor the pan-blue camp welcomes gambling, Ho said, calling on the Democratic Progressive Party administration to abolish Article 10-2 of the Offshore Islands Development Act (離島建設條例), which governs the establishment of casinos, to free outlying islands from the “threat” of such referendums.
Additional reporting by Sean Lin
CIVIL DEFENSE: More reservists in alternative service would help establish a sound civil defense system for use in wartime and during natural disasters, Kuma Academy’s CEO said While a total of 120,000 reservists are expected to be called up for alternative reserve drills this year, compared with the 6,505 drilled last year, the number has been revised to 58,000 due to a postponed training date, Deputy Minster of the Interior Ma Shih-yuan (馬士元) said. In principle, the ministry still aims to call up 120,000 reservists for alternative reserve drills next year, he said, but the actual number would not be decided later until after this year’s evaluation. The increase follows a Legislative Yuan request that the Ministry of the Interior address low recruitment rates, which it made while reviewing
WARNING: China has stepped up harassment of foreign vessels after its new regulation took effect last month, an official said, citing an incident in the Diaoyutai Islands The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday linked China’s seizure of a Taiwanese fishing vessel illegally operating in its territorial waters to Beijing’s new regulation authorizing the China Coast Guard to seize boats in waters it claims. Chinese officials boarded and then seized a Taiwanese fishing vessel operating near China’s coast close to Kinmen County late on Tuesday and took it to a Chinese port, the CGA said. The Penghu-registered squid fishing vessel Da Jin Man No. 88 (大進滿88) was boarded and seized by China Coast Guard east-northeast of Liaoluo Bay (料羅灣), 17.5 nautical miles (32.4km) from Taiwan’s restricted waters off Kinmen,
DETERRENCE: Along with US$500 million in military aid and up to US$2 billion in loans and loan guarantees, the bill would allocate US$400 million to countering PRC influence The US House of Representatives on Friday approved an appropriations bill for fiscal year 2025 that includes US$500 million in military aid for Taiwan. The legislation, which authorizes funding for the US Department of State, US foreign operations and related programs for next year, passed 212-200 in the Republican-led House. The bill stipulates that the US would provide no less than US$500 million in foreign military financing for Taiwan to enhance deterrence across the Taiwan Strait, and offer Taipei up to US$2 billion in loans and loan guarantees for the same purpose. The funding would be made available under the US’ Foreign Military
As eight basketball-playing international students appealed to the Taiwanese basketball industry after they were excluded from the draft of an upcoming new league merging the P.League+ and the T1 League, the new league’s preparatory committee spokesperson Chang Shu-jen (張樹人) yesterday said the committee would tomorrow discuss the supplementary measures and whether the international students can join the draft. The students on Tuesday called for support on their right to play in the upcoming new league, after a merger involving the two leagues impacted their eligibility for the draft. The international players from the University Basketball Association (UBA), led by first pick prospect