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.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
RSS