Number of voters stays just under the required 25 %, while opponents outnumber supporters
Taiwan News
Date: 2018/11/24
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
Voters lining up Saturday. (By Central News Agency)
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A referendum in favor of using the name ‘Taiwan’ instead of the current ‘Chinese Taipei’ to participate in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics looks to be faltering Saturday, not only because more voters opposed the proposal, but also because it looked like not enough voters had cast ballots.
The result of a referendum is only valid if 25 percent of eligible voters have cast their ballot, and if more are in favor of it than oppose it.
However, by 11:30 p.m. Saturday, only 24.3 percent of eligible voters had cast their ballot on the issue, according to provisional figures from the Central Election Commission.
Even if the total eventually exceeded 25 percent, the question still received more negative answers than positive ones. A total of 4,122,738 voters agreed that Taiwan should drop the name ‘Chinese Taipei’ and just use ‘Taiwan’ at international sports events, and specifically at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. [FULL STORY]
