The Constitutional Court on Friday upheld the constitutionality of legal provisions used to punish people who have changed their household registration to vote where they did not live, work or study.
The grand justices found the three provisions under Article 146 of the Criminal Code to be constitutional, because what constitutes illegality is clearly defined and does not infringe on people’s rights to equality, vote and move freely as enshrined in the Constitution.
The punishment is also proportional, Chief Justice Hsu Tzong-li (許宗力) said.
Photo: Wu Cheng-feng, Taipei Times
Article 146 states that a person who illegally intervenes in voting or falsifies voting results, fraudulently changes their household registration to be eligible to vote in a different constituency or attempts to commit such offenses, faces up to five years in prison.
Taiwan’s voting laws are tethered to the household registration system, whereby citizens have to register their primary abode with the government. Eligible voters then have to cast their ballot at a polling booth in an electoral district where they have been registered for a minimum of four consecutive months prior to an election.
Twenty people found guilty of offenses under the article in five elections that took place from 2006 to 2018 asked the grand justices to rule on the constitutionality of the provisions, citing the constitutional right to vote and freedom to choose a residence, among other reasons.
One of the 20, a resident of then-Taipei County (now New Taipei City), surnamed Hu (胡), registered as living in Hualien in February 2006, enabling him to cast a ballot for his uncle who was running for village warden in June that year. He moved his household registration back to Taipei County after the election, and was chargedwith voting interference.
The Hualien District Court sentenced Hu to two months in jail, which could be converted to a fine and one year of deprivation of civil rights. The ruling was later upheld by the High Court in the final verdict.
In another case, Liu Huei-tsung (劉惠宗) and the other two members of China Airlines’ labor union were found guilty of moving their household registrations in Taipei to Taoyuan in July 2018, so that they could vote for their colleague in the Taoyuan mayoral election in November that year.
They each received a three-month sentence, which could be converted to a fine, two-years probation and deprivation of civil rights for one year. The Supreme Court upheld that ruling.
Despite ruling in favor of the constitutionality of Article 146, which the trio were found to have breached, the Constitutional Court ordered a retrial at the Supreme Court, saying that it failed to take into account that the union members had commuted to work in Taoyuan for 20 to 30 years, despite all living in Taipei.
Taiwanese can choose their place of residence or work for household registration, and given that the three union members met the four-month threshold to vote in the Taoyuan mayoral election after they registered households in the city, the Supreme Court’s ruling was tantamount to an infringement of their right to vote, the Constitutional Court said.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to