Voters May Use Ballots for Plebiscites to Say "No" to Biased Policies
2018/11/22
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Voters May Use Ballots for Plebiscites to Say "No" to Biased Policies
United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)
November 19, 2018
Translation of an Excerpt
The elections on Saturday, besides choosing local public officials, there are also ten plebiscite elections, the largest number in history. For the nine-in-one local elections and the ten plebiscite elections, the bars are different; they will also have unprecedented complexities in operations for picking up the ballots and vote counting. Despite the fact that most people care more about the "election of people" in local elections, the elections are in fact "indirect democracy," while the plebiscites are "direct democracy" for citizens to take part in policy making. We call upon voters not to miss the opportunity of saying "no" to the government’s policy decisions through the plebiscite elections, especially to forestall biased policies or legislation as well as regulations from causing bewilderment in national development.
Among the ten plebiscite proposals this year, four pertain to issues of energy and the environment, five pertain to same-sex marriage and related education issues, while the other involves issues of national identity and changing of designations, while it is packaged as a sports issue, which could immediately affect the rights and interests of our athletes to participate in the Tokyo Olympics. The Legislative Yuan at the end of last year massively revised the law to lower the bars for the adoption of plebiscite proposals, creating a great explosion in the number of plebiscite proposals this year. Coupled with the fact that the mobilizing capacities of the various proponent groups are different, it would make the final outcomes of the plebiscite elections difficult to predict.
Under these circumstances, if the public take it lightly and do not cast ballots, or marked the wrong place in a handful of ballots, it is extremely possible to produce an imponderable outcome. The worst case scenario is a minority, representing a quarter of the voters agree and decide a nation-wide policy with vital effect, leading to an accidental crisis or chaotic policies for the country.
Logically, for any country to initiate plebiscites, it would conduct sufficient publicity and public discussions beforehand so as to help the public make the most rational choices. Nevertheless, this time the public have only witnessed the Tsai government going through the motions and fishing in muddy waters, but without seeing serious discussions or listening to all sides. Precisely because of this, whether in energy policy, changing the designation, or equality in marriage, the public should all the more swarm to cast their ballots in order to forestall a turbulent tsunami.
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