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Oct 22, 2007

Follow up on referendum news

This was sent to me by a friend Ioksin. It's about the referendum news I posted a few posts back.

Some interesting things to point out. First, the KMT called the DPP's promotion
of the UN referendum 喪心病狂 and 走火入魔. I don't know why in the world would a
self-claimed rational democratic opposition party would call a referendum
petitioned with 1.4 million signature by these two terms.

And,
interesting enough, the KMT is saying that the CEC is trying to tie the UN
referendum to the election to favor the DPP.

Well, let's get this clear.

In the coming CEC meeting on 10/26, the UN referendums will simply not
be discussed at all. Instead, they will (1) confirm that KMT's "anti-corruption"
referendum has reached the petition threshold and announced that both the
"anti-corruption" and "party asset" referendums will be held combined with the
legislative election; and (2) discuss whether election and referendum ballots
will be handed to voters at once.

See anything UN here? I didn't.

I personally interviewed CEC secretary-general yesterday, and he told me
neither the DPP nor the KMT has submitted UN referendum petitions, so it will
not be the issue at the time being. Second, if handing out ballots together
makes a mess on 1/12, they'll change it. Third, even if the ballots will be
issued at the same time, you don't have to take ALL the ballots.

So,
here it is. On 1/12 next year, when the people vote on their lawmakers, they
will also vote on the anti-corruption and the party assets referendums. And why
would it favor the DPP? Wouldn't it be possible that people are reminded of the
"crimes" that A-bian committed and decide not to vote for the DPP? Or, the KMT
simply thinks that the party asset thing is more SEDUCING to voters?

Same thing goes for the UN referendums. KMT says UN is not a issue at
the time--so why a referendum to "RETURN" to the UN? And--if both parties have
initiated UN referendums and both will be held at the same time as the
presidential election, WHY would it only favor one party but not the other?

1 comment:

Raj said...

Probably because the KMT knows their proposals are just crap attempts at neutralising the DPP's efforts. They would prefer that none of the proposals are handed out at the same time (even their own) as they're worried that will boost turnout on the ones they don't want to see.

Personally I hope the CEC decides to issue them at the same time. It will help the DPP. Indeed I think it's more important for the legislative elections which may be close in many areas. The fact the KMT has upwards of $US 1 billion+ of stolen assets should remind them who the corrupt politicians are. Plus a successful referendum would be a good stick to beat the KMT with.

Whereas on the presidential front I'm not sure how much difference the UN referendum would make.