The pro-Green Liberty Times (Chinese) has been reporting on how the legislative election referendum is being beaten: at the local level.Each neighborhood or precinct has a captain who is the local chief administrator, the li chang or the lin chang. The hierarchical administration of Taiwan society begins with them -- they handle neighborhood affairs, such as getting potholes or streetlights fixed. They are sensitive ears and eyes of the government in the neighborhoods. They are also about 90% KMT.
During election it is their job to distribute voter notification slips, which they have to present so they can vote. According to the law these notifications must be placed in voter hands, not left in mailboxes. In this election they are supposed to give one for the legislative election and one for the referendum. According to the Liberty Times report, in many districts voters are reporting that KMT precinct and neighborhood captains are simply refusing to distribute the referendum notification, without which voters cannot obtain a referendum ballot -- and thus can't vote for the referendum.
UPDATE: In the comments below people say you can still vote for the referendum without the notice, the idea is to make you think you can't vote for it. As STOP_MA points out, and we've noted before, the whole idea of two-ballot voting is to enable local KMT machines to know who votes DPP. It's basically undemocratic.
[Taiwan]
14 comments:
This may be a stupid question, but do you think the retention is enough that the defeat of the referendum, even at the local level, is inevitable?
Doesn't make a difference, as I said some time ago.
If either referendum is passed, it won't mean a thing if the sponsor can't command a majority in the legislative. So the DPP referendum passes and the KMT has a majority - who's going to force them to pass the law? No one can. Similarly if the DPP referendum fails but they can get a majority together, they can pass the law anyway.
They're designed to boost turnout, not produce a discernable result.
Check out this site for an image of the local notification slips.
今年的選舉通知單特別不一樣，你拿了嗎？
They are supposed to be neutral, but some li chang stapled the KMT campaign stuff together with the slips, instructing local people whom/how/what to vote.
Raj, don't forget that they are also designed to produce pressure. Nobody is expecting the KMT to honour the results of the referenda. They don't play honourably the rest of the time, so they won't be expected to start now. However, with a successful public vote on their stolen assets, for example, they would face significant pressure to do something. They would find it hard to justify dragging their feet. It would pretty much show that they are a party that does not have the interests of the Taiwanese people in mind. This is why, from their point of view, it is so crucial the referenda do not pass. They know they don't really have the public's support on these issues, so they will do whatever they can do to scuttle the referenda.
I think those who didn't get the notifications for referendum can still vote as long as they are eligible to vote for the referendum.
I just wanted to say that unfortunately I have not had time to read your blog, but your website really helped me with my decision to move to Taiwan. I have been here since the end of August and have fallen in love! Especially with Taichung! Thank you for such an informative website and I hope to catch up on your blog!
Sincerely,
Breanna http://brebre711.blogspot.com
My blog needs a lot of work!
Which has always been my question: if most teachers, police, governemt employees, public officials, etc... are KMT, why do they keep blaming the DPP for not being able to change the way things are? Just because they can change a few heads at the top, does not mean they can actually turn the tide in places where 99% of the people were handpicked and raised under a certain regime.
And do not tell me this is example of democracy, beacuse even in Central America we have laws about intervention of political parties in choosing job candidates for public/civil service.
As to the referendums, I may not agree with their content, but I definetively support the right to have them and feel truly appalled at the traps set for its development. Pity stuff like this will never see the light of day in national/international news.
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Ok. I'll say it one more time at the risk of sounding like a parrot -- as I'm sure everyone who has read my posts on this topic can attest to.
The two ballot-box referendum is a blatantly undemocratic process in itself. The 2004 referendum was chastised by at least one international democratic organization because of this 2 ballot-box process.
Why?
Because it takes the "anonymity" out of the process -- crucial for democratic elections. Everyone who has eyes knows who has voted for the referendum or who has followed orders and has not cast a ballot (leading to a reward, perhaps?)
I guess the KMT feel that the 2004 referendum was too close for comfort as far as their KMT supporters remaining loyal. So they have to go one step further to do this sort of thing.
But make no mistake about it. The referendum itself is undemocratic due to this process adopted.
You want a fair system? Have ONE ballot box.
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great blog man, my father is Taiwanese, but i have never been to taiwan before, i found your blog so informative, i just had to leave a note, i will be visiting in march, for my dad retirement, i do not speak mandarin at all is it gonna be problem?
Actually you can still get the ballot without presenting the referendum notification. But the point is to mislead people into skipping the refeendum altogether - such trick had served KMT well back in 2004 and the Chinese government was pleased.
Thanks, Emmanuel. Guys, I'll put the corrections up.
Michael
To Raj,
People said, sometime ago, the martial law will never be lifted, the direct presidential election will never happen, and KMT will always be in power. Many have lived through all these. Referendum, vote boosting or not, will make a difference.
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I wonder, in any democratic country, how long a party will survive if it has sponsored a measure for referendum and then tells voters to stay away from voting for it. It is hard to believe that KMT is still thriving.
Just to tell you that in our place (for my wife) the papers where left on top of the shoe box, not exactly hand given (although I had just opened the garage door, nobody called us or something).
So basically, if I hadn't gone out some minutes later, the papers could have been picked by someone else. No KMT propaganda on them, because it seems that Yi-lan will be DPP.
regards
MR_Boogie
As I waited in line to receive my ballot during the 2004 presidential election, an electoral official (or lin chang of some sort) was telling everyone in line to exit the poll as soon as they cast the presidential ballots, without getting into a second line to receive referendum ballots.
Responding to my objection, he explained that it doesn't matter if one votes in the referendum--it won't pass.
Adding insult to injury, I found out that I was not eligible to vote in the referendum. Something to do with the fact that I am not a resident.
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