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
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the