Tuesday, March 12, 2013

More referendum observations

A longtime observer of local politics pointed out to me another bit of anti-democratic fallout from the Double 50 threshold: ballot secrecy. There won't be any. Consider...

1. It is likely that the KMT will instruct its people to stay home.

2. It is also likely that the referendum will not combined with next year's elections.

3. Thus, the only thing voted on will be the Fourth Nuke Plant referendum.

If KMT types are ordered to stay home, this means that the only people going will be, in the very least, people who are voting to stop construction and operation of the plant, and who are more than likely pan-Green voters. In other words, anyone who goes to the polls that day outs themselves as a probable DPP supporter. That will be a consideration in people's minds, and it will inhibit participation in some cases.

Latest TISR poll: 58% want Fourth Nuclear Plant suspended, 52% support keeping the other three plants in operation. The public is wary of Nuke 4 but separates that issue from the issue of nuclear power as a whole, says TISR.

The Atomic Energy agency and the KMT rejected a DPP proposal to amend the law to provide for a local referendum when a nuclear power plant has its fuel rods loaded, TT said. Although it is local lives and health affected by the plant, the government refuses to give them any say in whether they want such a plant in their neighborhood. The article also observed that the plan to remove the nuke waste from Orchid Island by 2016 is "hardly possible" and thus the project has been pushed back to 2021 at the moment. Argh.
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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

the referendum is a waste of time and money.

when I first heard about it, I knew it was not better than a rigged election in Parador. :) El Presidente Simms wins no matter which way the election goes. You vote yes: he wins. You vote no: he wins. Very democratic. :)

I'm 99% confident that the nuclear power plant construction will go on as planned and become operational no matter what.

Dana

Anonymous said...

forgot to dd this picture which reminds me of the nuclear referendum in Taiwan. :(

http://oi46.tinypic.com/2q1xl34.jpg



Dana

Anonymous said...

with manny ramnirez in kaohsiung nw with 3 floor mansion, car, driver, perks and 25K Salary USD oer month, it won't be long before apple daily finds him in bed with some Kaohsiung betel nut chicks and worse. watch the sex scandal hit a home run before the season is over. i sense trouble....not his fault, but trouble...

Anonymous said...

climate change secutiry issue in Asia? for sure. that is why the world will need polar cities in the next few generations come the climapocalypse. will taiwan be prepared? google "polar city red" by Jim Laughter, a cli fi novel about this very thing. He writes from Tulsa.

Anonymous said...

Taking a quick poll of everyone in my office, most of whom are pan-blue voters, and all but a couple plan to vote in the referendum because they want the plant stopped. Polls repeatedly show that opposition to the construction is bipartisan - a poll released a couple of days ago that surveyed people in Taipei (a pan-blue stronghold) showed over 70% were against Nuke 4. To suggest that anyone who goes to vote is outing themselves as a DPP supporter is ludicrous.

Michael Turton said...

That is my impression as well. But what the KMT's behavior means is that if you vote in the referendum, you are probably voting against the plant. Hence, whether or not you are actually a DPP supporter, you might be taken for one. In Taipei there are plenty of young smart voters who haven't internalized the KMT's terror tactics of twenty years ago, but that is not true of people 45 and up in rural areas where everyone knows everyone.

Anonymous said...

You'd think that if the majority of Taiwanese don't want to be like China, they'd not always follow their "party" down the garden path, nor feel any threat to turn one's back on them.