CEC warns against “chaos” of repeated referendums and elections

• Lin Che-yuan and Kaylee Madjar/Staff Writer and Staff Writer

Central Election Commission (CEC) chairman Lee Chin Yung (李進勇) today warned lawmakers to carefully consider the logistics of holding referendums at the same time as the election, as the legislature was due to debate a proposal to restore the mandate.

The issue had already been proposed in 2021 and failed to gain public support after the “chaos” of the 2018 election, Lee told reporters before attending a legislative hearing.

That year, voters voted in 10 referendums alongside local elections by a nine-to-one margin.

Photo: George Zorng, Taipei Times

Reviews of those elections showed that election officials were unable to handle the volume of votes, Lee said.

Therefore, the Referendum Law (公民投票法) was amended in June 2019 to separate referendums from national elections, he said.

Since then, the 2020 presidential and legislative elections, 2021 referendums, 2022 local elections, and this year’s presidential and legislative elections have proceeded smoothly, he said.

The 2021 ballot included a proposal to hold referendums at the same time as the general election, but it was rejected by voters, Lee said.

The legislature was today due to debate amendments to the law proposed by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmaker Luo Chih-chiang (羅智強) to once again link referendums to general elections.

Law cited low turnout in separately held referendums, saying only 41 percent of voters turned out in 2021, down from 55 percent in 2018.

If turnout is low, the results may not reflect public opinion, he said.

The law was amended in 2017 to require referendums “shall” be held on the same day as national elections when President William Lai (賴清德) was prime minister, he added.

Law yesterday announced the results of a survey on the issue organized by the New Legislative Think Tank, an organization founded by the lawmaker last month.

The poll found that 66.3 percent of respondents supported combining referendums and general elections, 21.3 percent were against it, and 12.3 percent had no opinion.

Additional reporting by Lin Hsin-han