Taipei Times
Date: Dec 08, 2016
By: Staff writer, with CNA

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday launched a civil alliance as the first step in a campaign to call for a national referendum on food safety, but denied his action was a precursor to a run for KMT chairperson next year.

A referendum asking people whether they support a proposal to ease the nation’s ban on imports from five Japanese prefectures “is not one option. It is the only option,” Hau said at a news conference held to announce the Vote for Food Safety Alliance (守護食安公投聯盟).

The former Taipei mayor last week proposed a national referendum on food imports from the five Japanese prefectures. He will now begin collecting a minimum of 94,000 signatures to make the proposal official.

As stipulated by the Referendum Act (公民投票法), the proportion of signatories for a referendum to be valid must be no less than 0.5 percent of the total electorate at the previous presidential election. For Hau’s proposal, the number of eligible voters at the Jan. 16 election was 18,782,991.    [FULL  STORY]