Both of Taiwan’s major political parties are making a final push to energize their voters and spur turnout in a referendum set for next week.
On December 18, the people of Taiwan will have their say. Voters will go to the polls to decide on four contentious issues in a referendum vote.
These are: 1. What should be done with the long-mothballed Fourth Nuclear Power Plant? 2. Should a planned natural gas terminal be moved to protect a nearby coastal algae reef? 3. Should Taiwan reinstate a ban on imports of pork treated with the additive ractopamine? And 4. Should Taiwan go back to its previous practice of holding referendum votes like this one on the same day as major elections?
Though not all members of the opposition KMT have made their views on these issues known, a number support a yes vote on all four questions. Meanwhile, the governing DPP is urging voters to vote no across the board.
With just ten days to go before the vote, KMT Chairman Eric Chu is calling on all KMT members and supporters to do their bit. He says the KMT lacks the government resources of the DPP and what he calls the DPP’s “cyber army”, and he says the party is relying instead on small individuals, which he likened to an army of ants.
Meanwhile, President Tsai Ing-wen, the DPP’s chairperson, has given her party the order to mount a last campaign to capture votes. Among the ideas party lawmakers have come up with are virtual practice ballots. The idea is to get voters familiar with the design of the ballots to be used in the referendum vote, which is different from that of conventional election ballots. They can then simulate marking a real ballot—and the DPP lawmakers hope they will mark no on all four questions.