Source: Huaxia Jingwei.com
The picture shows the anti-"Laizhu" campus alliance protesting outside Taiwan's legislative body last year, calling for an explicit provision banning ractopamine-based meat products in school nutritious lunches. (Taiwan's "China Times" file photo)
Huaxia Jingwei News, July 3: According to Taiwan's "China Times" report, also shrouded in the shadow of the epidemic, Taiwan's "Central Election Conference" yesterday made a "referendum" to postpone and remove Chen Baiwei. Strange decision to keep the case on schedule. Four "referendums" including "Anti-Laizhu" were originally scheduled to be voted on August 28. The "Central Election Commission" committee meeting followed Article 24 of the so-called "Referendum Law" and applied mutatis mutandis Article 66 of the "Public Officials Election and Recall Law" 1. 2 provisions, on the basis that the epidemic is a "natural disaster or other force majeure event before the voting day", the 11 committee members unanimously approved the postponement to December 18. But strangely, the same group of people decided to hold the recall of Chen Baiwei, Taiwan Foundation Progressive Party's "legislator", on August 28, based on the "Public Servants Recall Act" which stipulates that the recall vote must be held within 20 to 60 days after its establishment. The votes were cast, triggering ridicule of double standards.
Four "referendums" including "protecting algae reefs", "anti-Lai pigs", "restarting the nuclear four", and "referendum tied to the general election" were originally scheduled to be voted on August 28, but due to the impact of the new coronavirus epidemic, So far, Taiwan is still under alert level three. After consulting the opinions of various counties and cities, the "Election Committee" submitted it to the committee yesterday to discuss whether to postpone it, and finally decided to postpone it.
1 County and City Election Committee officials revealed that only 2 of the 22 counties and cities had mild epidemics and advocated holding the event as scheduled, while the others wanted to postpone it. However, everyone responded by saying that they respected the decision of the "Election Committee" to avoid becoming a target of struggle in the future.
Li Jinyong, chairman of the "Election Committee", said yesterday that in this "referendum", more than 19.8 million people with voting rights will vote at 17,479 polling stations across Taiwan, and there are nearly 270,000 people working at the polling stations. The election work is cumbersome. Taiwan is currently under level three alert, with campuses, community activity centers, temples, churches and other places closed. Election work has been severely affected and delayed.
Li Jinyong listed 5 major reasons for the postponement of the "referendum": 270,000 voting and counting office staff must be briefed in advance, with an average of more than 200 people per session, exceeding the epidemic prevention guidelines; voting and counting offices are prone to gaps in epidemic prevention; complex election tasks rely heavily on local governments However, due to epidemic prevention, local manpower is tight and there is no time to take care of election affairs; the "referendum" is the largest movement of people and mass gatherings in recent times, and it is best to avoid causing an outbreak of the epidemic; in some overseas areas, the epidemic has increased due to the gathering of people at festivals.
In addition, the "Elected Committee" announced yesterday that the recall case of "legislator" Chen Baiwei was established, and will send a letter to the dismissed humanities to submit a statement of defense within 10 days from the next day. Li Jinyong said that the committee decided to vote on August 28. If the epidemic situation changes during this period, it is expected that the committee meeting on July 16 will discuss whether to adjust.
The Taichung City Election Committee pointed out that Chen Baiwei's Taichung "Legislator" District 2 covers the five major administrative districts of Shalu, Longjing, Dadu, Wuri, and Wufeng. It is expected that there will be 258 voting stations, each voting station. In addition to the 13 electoral staff at the voting office, two more epidemic prevention staff were added to take temperature and spray alcohol on foreheads. Teacher Chen, who is already a senior election officer, said that if the epidemic situation is alleviated before August 28, he will consider taking over as an election officer. Otherwise, the risk of being in close contact with voters is too high. Even with the most stringent epidemic prevention, it will still be frightening. .
