A task force assembled by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus charged with reviewing optional amendments of the Referendum Act (公民投票法) met on Tuesday for the first time.
The DPP said that it felt it was necessary to reform the act after last month’s chaos, when referendums were held alongside the nine-in-one elections.
Task force members said they discussed measures to prevent fraud — such as using the names of deceased people on referendum petitions, which happened last month — as well as the establishment of a separate day for referendum voting.
Photo: CNA
The latter would be necessary to prevent local elections and referendums from interfering with each other, they said.
The task force hopes to deliberate on the specifics of a draft amendment at its next meeting, pending the finalization of the party caucus’ draft.
DPP legislators Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋), Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康), Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧), Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀) and Shih Yi-fang (施義芳) have already submitted their versions of the draft.
During the meeting, it was proposed that a set day be established for referendum voting to provide sufficient time for voters to read and understand each item.
Human Rights Day on Dec. 10 was offered as a possibility, although no consensus was reached on the issue.
Members proposed different ideas about how to address election fraud.
Tuan’s draft suggests giving more authority to the Central Election Commission to scrutinize the wording of referendums, which should be simple, clearly understandable and “not twist the facts.”
A mechanism is needed to ensure that signatures are not forged, such as requiring a national ID card for each signature, he said.
There must be ways to establish the validity of signatures, he said, adding that the commission should create a system whereby voters could check whether their identity has been fraudulently used to sign any referendums.
Su suggested that referendums be rejected if a certain number of their signatures were found to be invalid, and that voting on a referendum should not be held until six months after it passes the threshold.
Su also suggested keeping referendum voting on the same day as national elections to conserve resources.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
A former soldier and an active-duty army officer were yesterday indicted for allegedly selling classified military training materials to a Chinese intelligence operative for a total of NT$79,440. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Chen Tai-yin (陳泰尹) and Lee Chun-ta (李俊達) for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例). Chen left the military in September 2013 after serving alongside then-staff sergeant Lee, now an army lieutenant, at the 21st Artillery Command of the army’s Sixth Corps from 2011 to 2013, according to the indictment. Chen met a Chinese intelligence operative identified as “Wang” (王) through a friend in November
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
The Grand Hotel Taipei has rejected media reports claiming that the hotel had prevented CBS from broadcasting coverage of the Beijing summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on its premises. Media reports alleging that the hotel owner, dissatisfied with CBS’s coverage, prohibited the network from broadcasting political content on the hotel premises, are not true, the hotel said in a statement issued last night. The reports were “inconsistent with how the hotel actually handled the matter,” it said. The hotel said it received a refund request from a
RSS