Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/10/23
By: Claudia Liu and Elizabeth Hsu
Taipei, Oct. 23 (CNA) The Central Election Commission (CEC) has approved a
CNA file photo
referendum proposal on overturning the government’s policy to make Taiwan a nuclear-free homeland by 2025, bringing to 10 the number of referendums to be held in conjunction with year-end local elections.
The agency announced Tuesday that the initiative had met the threshold for valid endorsements after the leading petitioner submitted enough additional signatures to make up a shortfall that had held the initiative back.
The referendum proposal will ask voters if they agree to abolish paragraph 1 of Article 95 of the Electricity Act, which says that “all nuclear energy-based power-generating facilities shall completely cease operations by 2025.”
Proposers of the referendum, led by Huang Shih-hsiu (黃士修), argue that nuclear energy is a safe, clean source of electricity that can allow time for the development of other sources of green energy without damaging the environment or contributing to global warming. [FULL STORY]