The Central Election Commission (CEC) yesterday postponed next month’s referendum to Dec. 18, due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The vote, originally slated for Aug. 28, would be on proposals to protect the algal reefs in Datan Borough (大潭) in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音), bar pork imports containing ractopamine, combine referendum votes with national elections and restart work on the mothballed Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮).
Mobilizing nearly 270,000 workers and volunteers to help at 17,479 voting stations would be problematic under a nationwide level 3 COVID-19 alert, the commission said.
Photo: CNA
The alert, extended until July 12, prohibits meetings of more than five people indoors and 10 outdoors, and requires that schools, community centers, temples and other places where large groups gather close, which would hinder the commission’s ability to prepare for the referendums.
The CEC cited Article 24 of the Referendum Act (公民投票法) and Constitutional Interpretation No. 553 as giving it the authority to delay the vote, adding that it was unanimously approved by commission members.
CEC Chairman Lee Chin-yung (李進勇) said that the commission had sought opinions from local governments and branch offices, with most saying that the commission should respect the opinion of the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), which had said that holding large-scale events such as a referendum vote could increase the risk of more cluster infections.
Referendums require a significant number of staffers and volunteers from local governments, districts and boroughs, most of whom are already busy with epidemic prevention efforts, Lee said.
Rescue Datan’s Algal Reefs Alliance convener Pan Chong-cheng (潘忠政), who sponsored a referendum to relocate a planned liquefied national gas (LNG) terminal off the coast of Datan, said the commission’s decision to delay the vote was “commendable.”
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), whose members initiated two of the referendums, said that the Legislative Yuan should convene a provisional session to discuss rules on delaying referendums and implementing an absentee voting system.
The KMT also said that the government should halt imports of US pork containing ractopamine and suspend construction of the LNG terminal until referendum voting has finished.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiao-kuang and Lo Chi
UNITED: The premier said Trump’s tariff comments provided a great opportunity for the private and public sectors to come together to maintain the nation’s chip advantage The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.” “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida. “They
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
TAIWAN DEFENSE: The initiative would involve integrating various systems in a fast-paced manner through the use of common software to obstruct a Chinese invasion The first tranche of the US Navy’s “Replicator” initiative aimed at obstructing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be ready by August, a US Naval Institute (USNI) News report on Tuesday said. The initiative is part of a larger defense strategy for Taiwan, and would involve launching thousands of uncrewed submarines, surface vessels and aerial vehicles around Taiwan to buy the nation and its partners time to assemble a response. The plan was first made public by the Washington Post in June last year, when it cited comments by US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue
MARITIME SECURITY: Of the 52 vessels, 15 were rated a ‘threat’ for various reasons, including the amount of time they spent loitering near subsea cables, the CGA said Taiwan has identified 52 “suspicious” Chinese-owned ships flying flags of convenience that require close monitoring if detected near the nation, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday, as the nation seeks to protect its subsea telecoms cables. The stricter regime comes after a Cameroon-flagged vessel was briefly detained by the CGA earlier this month on suspicion of damaging an international cable northeast of Taiwan. The vessel is owned by a Hong Kong-registered company with a Chinese address given for its only listed director, the CGA said previously. Taiwan fears China could sever its communication links as part of an attempt
RSS