Top Cabinet officials reported at the legislature Wednesday on possible reforms to referendum and voting laws. The Cabinet says it wants to keep the 50% voter turnout benchmark for referendums.
Central Election Commission (CEC) Chairman Liu I-Chou said that since Taiwan has seen a voter turnout of 80% for presidential elections, changing the referendum voter benchmark to 40% is reasonable. But Executive Yuan Secretary-General Chien Tai-lang says the benchmark should stay at 50%. That’s because a voter turnout of 50% shows that enough people care about the referendum issue. The Executive Yuan said it wants to maintain this benchmark, but it will hold public hearings this month to hear peoples’ opinions on the issue.
The Cabinet has proposed an absentee voting system while the opposition wants to get rid of the high voter benchmark for referendums and lower the voting age to 18. However, CEC Chairman Liu I-chou expressed reservations about allowing absentee voting.
"There are 73 voting districts for legislators, 2 aboriginal seats and 1 seat for the ruling party. That’s 76 seats. But if we allow absentee voting, it will cause a lot of difficulties as people apply to change their voting district. There will also be contradictions with how votes are counted."
Some lawmakers were also concerned about the problems that may arise with absentee voting while others said it is the best way to enable citizens to exercise their right to vote.