Advocates yesterday called on lawmakers to lower the voting age to 18, a day after the Legislative Yuan’s Procedures Committee placed a related bill on the legislative agenda for tomorrow.
The bill — which would involve amending Article 1 of the Constitution — must pass the legislature by the end of this month if it is to be ratified in a referendum held concurrently with the local elections on Nov. 26.
Speaking at a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei, youth rights groups said that legislators must vote for the bill or be “condemned by history.”
Photo: CNA
Taiwan Youth Association for Democracy president Chang Yu-meng (張育萌) said that partisanship should not get in the way of enfranchising young people, a goal to which he said Taiwan has never been closer.
Japan, Malaysia and South Korea have amended their laws to lower the voting age, he said, adding that Taiwan must not become a holdout among the world’s democracies by denying young people the right to vote.
Lin Yu-sheng (林于聖), deputy secretary-general of the Taiwan Alliance for Advancement of Youth Rights and Welfare, said reducing the age threshold would help young people find their political voice and inject energy into political discussions.
Taiwan Association for Human Rights deputy secretary-general Wang Si (王曦) said that political parties must back the constitutional amendment as they have promised, adding that young people should at a minimum be able to establish civil groups and assemble as current laws implicitly allow.
Students from more than 100 high schools have joined the call to support the amendment on social media with the hashtag “votefor18,” and plan to demonstrate outside the Legislative Yuan as lawmakers vote on the bill, they said.
Lawmakers’ deliberations on the bill are to be broadcast live at the protest site, they added.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
Temperatures in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店) climbed past 37°C yesterday, as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) issued heat alerts for 16 municipalities, warning the public of intense heat expected across Taiwan. The hottest location in Taiwan was in Sindian, where the mercury reached 37.5°C at about 2pm, according to CWA data. Taipei’s Shilin District (士林) recorded a temperature of 37.4°C at noon, Taitung County’s Jinfeng Township (金峰) at 12:50 pm logged a temperature of 37.4°C and Miaoli County’s Toufen Township (頭份) reached 36.7°C at 11:40am, the CWA said. The weather agency yesterday issued a yellow level information notice for Taipei, New
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
RSS