The threshold to start and pass referendums in Taiwan has been lowered as well as the voting age to 18
Taiwan News
Date: 2017/12/12
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — In a major advancement for Taiwan’s democracy, the Legislature
Legislators shout “The people decide, return rights to the people.” (By Central News Agency)
today passed new provisions to the Referendum Act (公民投票法) which will lower the percentage of turnout to enact a referendum, reduce the number of signatures to initiate a plebiscite, and drop the referendum voting age to 18, reported CNA.
Under the newly amended law, an initiative to launch the first stage of a referendum will only require 0.01 percent of total eligible voters who participated in the most recent presidential election, as opposed to the 0.1 percent that was required to pass this first hurdle. In the case of the 2016 presidential election, that would be 1,879.
For the second stage of such a plebiscite to succeed, it now only requires 1.5 percent of those eligible to vote in the presidential election, as opposed to 5 percent previously. This translates to 280,000 people from the 2016 presidential election.
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