With the referendum act amended, now it’s relatively much easier to put a referendum on the ballot, and getting it past the percentage of eligible voters limit.
It’s a blessing and a curse all at once. Good thing is now Taiwanese really get to decide the direction of future policies. Bad thing is now there’s a crap-ton of them.
For the upcoming 2018 election, there are 10 referendums. Since there had been 6 failed referendums in the past, these new referendums are labelled from 7 to 16.
They fall into 4 categories:
Attempts to Revive Nuclear Power Plant 4:
No. 7: KMT - Anti air pollution referendum
Do you agree to annually reduce fossil fuel power output?
No. 8: KMT - Anti Shenau coal power plant referendum
Do you agree to terminate the construction of new or expansion of existing coal power plants?
No. 9: KMT - Anti importation of radiated food referendum
Do you agree to ban importation of food from Japan’s Fukushima disaster areas?
No. 16: Huang Shixiu (KMT think-tank) - Use nuclear power to transition into green energy referendum
Do you agree to not abolish nuclear power before green energy is a reliable and viable option?
These 4 referendums are all from the KMT. They are phrased in such a way to pretend to be about pollution, while aiming to achieve the goal of reviving the poorly designed nuclear power plant 4. By the way, it was President Ma who put an end to nuclear power plant 4, when it became obvious that it was poorly designed and constructed with Taiwan’s utmost Zhabudou spirit.
Attempt to Make Clear Taiwan’s Desire for Independence to the International Community:
No. 13: Chi Cheng (Olympic Bronze Metalist) - Name correction for the Tokyo Olympics referendum
Do you agree to use Taiwan as the full title in all future international sporting events?
Attempt to block marriage equality:
No. 10: Coalition for the Happiness of our Next Generation - Marriage definition referendum
Do you agree to rule out protection of same sex-marriage in civil law?
No. 11: Coalition for the Happiness of our Next Generation - Age appropriate sexual orientation education referendum
Do you agree to prohibit education on same-sex sexual orientation for elementary and middle school students?
No. 12: Coalition for the Happiness of our Next Generation - Separate and specific law to guarantee the rights of same-sex marriage referendum
Do you agree to have a separate and specific law to guarantee the rights of same-sex marriage
The 3 referendums in this category are all from the Coalition for the Happiness of our Next Generation. No. 10 aims to block same sex marriage all together. No. 11 wants to prevent equal rights education in classrooms, and in case No. 10 fails, No. 12 aims to keep the current civil law for marriage unchanged, and essentially relegate same sex marriage to civil union status.
Attempt to promote marriage equality:
No. 14: Marriage Equality Action Group - Marriage equality referendum
Do you agree that the civil law should guarantee the status of same sex marriage?
No. 15: Marriage Equality Action Group - Sexual orientation education referendum
Do you agree to have equal sexual orientation education, including same-sex equality, in elementary and middle school curriculum?
The two referendums started by Marriage Equality Action Group want to promote equality education and amend current marriage laws in the civil code to include same sex marriage.
On voting day, voters will first cast votes for the elected representatives, then vote for the referendums.
There will be 3 boxes for the referendums. Voters have to cast referendum 7, 8, 9 into the first box, number 10, 11, 12 into the second box, and finally 13, 14, 15, 16 into the third box.
That’s all 10… Writing this certainly helped me clear things up. Hopefully it would be of help to others as well.