Voters seemed to oppose same-sex marriage and gender education

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/11/27
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Last Saturday’s 10 referendums produced unexpected results which have undermined Taiwan’s reputation as one of Asia’s most progressive societies, the New York Times reported.

Especially the results of five referendum on gay-related issues stunned many citizens on the island, since a majority of voters seemed to reject same-sex marriage and gender education in school.

Despite the Constitutional Court ruling in May last year that limiting marriage to heterosexual couples was unconstitutional, referendum voters decided against same-sex marriage and approved the removal of content about homosexuality from primary school textbooks, New York Times Taiwan correspondent Chris Horton wrote.

Online misinformation stoking fears about gay rights played a part in the outcome of the referendums, while gay groups said the government failed to counter the misleading campaign.   [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/11/27
By: Ku Chuan and Ko Lin

Taipei, Nov. 27 (CNA) Taiwan will no longer aim to become nuclear- free by 2025,

following the result of the recent referendum related to nuclear power, Cabinet spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka said Tuesday.

Last Saturday, Taiwanese voted in 10 referendums alongside local government elections, including one that pertained to the abolishment of nuclear energy-based power-generating facilities by 2025.

The referendum result showed that 59.5 percent of the nearly 10 million who voted are against abolishing nuclear power, according to Central Election Commission (CEC) figures.

The Executive Yuan respects the result and will work with relevant ministries to re-evaluate the country’s energy policies, Kolas said.    [FULL  STORY]

‘DISCONTENT’: The DPP would reflect on its mistakes and find solutions, Tsai said, while the Taoyuan mayor urged her to reshuffle the Cabinet and Presidential Office

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 28, 2018
By: Stacy Hsu  /  Staff reporter

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday apologized for letting her administration

become a burden on Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidates in Saturday’s local elections, as she embarked on a series of trips across the nation to gather opinions from the party’s frontline campaign staff.

Tsai, who on Saturday evening resigned as DPP chairperson over the party’s losses, made the remarks at a Kaohsiung forum attended by members of a fan club for DPP Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), who lost to his Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rival Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜).

Chen’s loss ended the DPP’s 20-year governance of the city, which has traditionally been a pan-green camp stronghold.

Kaohsiung is one of the seven cities and the counties the DPP lost in the local elections. The party had won 13 cities and counties in the 2014 race.
[FULL  STORY]

Responding to complaints from the public, the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights is urging

The News Lens
Date: 2018/11/26
By: Cat Thomas

A pro-LGBT rights group is demanding that the Central Election Commission investigate allegations of irregularities in the voting process surrounding last Saturday’s referendums.

According to a statement published by the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights (TAPCPR) on its Facebook page on Saturday evening, by 6 p.m, on the day of the referendum the organization had received over 1,000 complaints from the public alleging regarding improper activity at and inside polling stations.

The statement includes allegations of misconduct by election officials inside the polling stations, as well as violations of the electoral and referendum laws through placement of materials that might influence voters within 30 meters of polling stations.

The statement said the organization had received reports of the public receiving voting slips that had already been stamped, selective distribution of the 10 referendum ballots to the public so that not all slips were given to all voters taking part in the referendum, and direct promotion of the anti-LGBT referendums to the public.    [FULL  STORY]

A total of NT$182 million was allocated by the government to implement short-term relief options for foreign caregivers

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/11/26
By: Alicia Nguyen, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – In order to secure foreign caregivers health and well-being, as well as to help financially support Taiwanese families who require extra assistance on a temporary basis, the Ministry of Labor (MOL) on Nov. 26, announced that relaxed regulations for respite care services will go into effect on Dec. 1.

Under the new regulations, Taiwanese nationals who have hired foreign caregivers to take care of their family members with a severe disability, or those that require limited assistance, such as individuals living alone or those whose primary caregiver is over 70 years old, will be eligible for the respite care assistance, CNA reported.

Furthermore, qualified applicants can apply for a maximum of 21 days of respite care services annually which can help to cover the periods which employers are required by law to grant to their regular foreign caregivers.

After passing the review process, families and caregivers are now able to receive government-funded short-term relief assistance. However, the amount of subsidy provided shall depend on the economic situation of the household.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/11/26
By: Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, Nov. 26 (CNA) A series of mechanical malfunctions on a Puyuma express train and the poor troubleshooting capability of both the train driver and the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) dispatch control room are to blame for a deadly crash last month, a Cabinet investigation task force said Monday.

In addition, the TRA’s failure to establish and implement standard operation procedures (SOP) also indirectly contributed to the tragedy, said Allen Hu (胡湘麟), head of the Bureau of High Speed Rail, who is executive secretary and spokesman for the task force.

Citing the “Swiss cheese model,” which is often used to determine the cause of an accident, Hu said the crash was the result of an accumulation of human errors, ranging from train delivery checks to follow-up maintenance work and operational issues.

Under the model, an accident takes place only when multiple layers of risks — like holes on slices of cheese — are not blocked but align. At that point hazards go unchecked and lead to failure.    [FULL  STORY]

COOPERATION: Several DPP lawmakers emphasized the need for legislators and the Cabinet to work together on forming policies to get a better grasp of the public pulse

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 27, 2018
By: Yang Chun-hui, Chiu Yen-ling and Sherry Hsiao  /  Staff reporters, with staff writer and CNA

General Chen Chu (陳菊) have decided to remain in their posts in the interest of

continuity, after offering to step down to take responsibility for the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) crushing losses in Saturday’s nine-in-one elections.

The DPP won only six of the 22 city mayor and county commissioner seats nationwide, while the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) won 15.

Lai, who took office in September last year, tendered his resignation on Saturday, but President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said she would not accept it.

At a news conference yesterday, Lai said that after talking with Tsai the previous day he had decided to stay on as premier to help advance the government’s policies.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan Internatonal 
Date: 26 November, 2018
By: Natalie Tso

The New Power Party (NPP) won 16 seats in 10 cities and counties, making it the third largest party in Taiwan’s political scene.  It was the first time the NPP had fielded candidates in local goverment elections.

The party was formed in early 2015 and was a spin-off of the student-led Sunflower movement.  That movement in 2014 stalled the legislature’s ratification of a controversial trade agreement between Taiwan and China. In 2016, the NPP won five legislative seats, making it the third largest party in the legislature.    [FULL  STORY]

A chaotic day of referendum voting demands changes to a system that few people managed to grasp.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/11/25
By: Cat Thomas

Yesterday, I spent the day bobbing around a few polling stations in Taipei city. I spoke to around 30 exiting voters at various locations, a number of election officials and specially assigned police officers. I wasn’t taking notes or keeping count. I identified myself as a journalist, but feared that recording or noting responses would squander the goodwill of people who were prepared to open up to me.

Initially, I wanted to get a sense of how people were voting in the referendums, but it quickly became clear that this ad-hoc field research was uncovering deeper structural issues and flaws in the voting process. I spoke to friends outside the capital about their experience of going to the polls, and found that their experiences echoed my observations in Taipei.

The electorate in Taiwan voted on 10 referendum questions. This is the first time Taiwan has run so many referendum questions concurrently, due to changes to the Referendum Act which took effect in December 2017. Outside the polling stations I visited in Taipei, many people complained that the referendum questions had not only increased the time it took to vote, with waits of two hours being par for the course in Taipei, especially in the afternoon, but also that the process of completing the referendum ballots was confusing.

The questions fell into three categories: Five questions on same-sex marriage and education (some of which were conflicting), three on the government’s green energy policy (one of which takes immediate effect), one on maintaining current restrictions on food imports from areas of Japan affected by the nuclear disaster of 2011, and one on applying to the Olympic committee to use the name Taiwan, rather than Chinese Taipei, for the Olympic team.    [FULL  STORY]

Lawmakers aim to draft legislation which will satisfy the Constitutional Court ruling, and respect the results of Saturday’s referendums, says Executive Yuan Spokeswoman

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/11/25
By: Duncan Deaeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – On Saturday Nov. 24, the Taiwanese public voted on a referendum that saw most voters opposed to altering Taiwan’s civil code to provide for the legalization of same-sex marriage.

On Nov. 25, spokeswoman for the Executive Yuan, Kolas Yotaka, said in light of public opposition to altering Taiwan’s Civil Code, legislators are now required to introduce new legislation to safeguard the rights of same-sex unions, in accordance with the ruling of Taiwan’s Constitutional Court made in May 2017.

Kolas said that legislation is already being drafted and will be introduced to the Legislative Yuan for a vote within three months, following any necessary revisions, reports Liberty Times.

In 2017, Taiwan’s high court ruled that it is unconstitutional for same-sex couples to be barred from marriage, and gave the government two years to legalize it. Due to disagreements within Taiwan’s parliament, legislation to legalize same-sex marriage stalled.    [FULL  STORY]