A multi-question referendum was held in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

on 24 November 2018 alongside

local elections In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...

. The referendum was the first since the December 2017 reform to the Referendum Act, which reduced the threshold for submitting questions to the ballot; under the new system, signatures from 1.5 percent of the electorate (around 280,000 people) were required to successfully put a question on the ballot, reduced from 5 percent previously.

Background

A total of ten questions appeared on the ballot. Under Taiwanese law, for their initiative to be presented to the voters, a total of 280,000 signatures (1.5% of eligible voters) were required for a question to be considered by the Central Election Commission (CEC). Five of the questions reviewed and approved by the CEC were about

LGBT rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Notably, ...

LGBT sex education LGBT sex education is a sex education program within a school, university, or community center that addresses prominent sexual health topics among LGBT groups. Within schools, topics on LGBT sexual health are usually integrated into the general s ...

and

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...

. Four other questions on the ballot concerned international games representation,

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced ...

coal power A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide, there are about 8,500 coal-fired power stations totaling over 2,000 gigawatts capacity. They generate about a th ...

and a ban on imports of agricultural products and food from areas affected by the

Fukushima nuclear disaster The was a nuclear accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which occurred on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 ...

. The tenth question asked voters to reject Article 95-1 of the Electricity Act, which stipulated that all of the country's nuclear power generating facilities should be decommissioned by 2025. This question had originally been rejected by the CEC, though the commission reversed its decision after being ordered by the Taipei High Administrative Court to accept an additional 24,000 signatures added to the petition. For a proposal to be approved, at least 25 percent of the eligible voters had to vote in favour of the question.

Same-sex marriage proposals

In February 2018, a Taiwanese conservative Christian group opposed to same-sex marriage (the Alliance for Next Generation's Happiness) proposed holding a referendum on the issue, aiming to overturn a May 2017 ruling by the

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...

that mandated the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Taiwan within two years. The Central Election Commission reviewed and accepted the group's proposals in April 2018. Two of their approved questions were related to

; one on whether marriage should be limited to a bond between a man and a woman and one on whether there should be a special law to protect same-sex couples' right to a "permanent union" (effectively introducing civil unions). A third question will ask voters whether to prevent the implementation of laws mandating the inclusion of information about homosexuality in sexual education classes at schools. In September 2018, a group in favor of same-sex marriage announced that it had collected enough signatures to submit its own questions to a referendum. The group's questions would require the legislature to amend the Civil Code to expressly allow same-sex couples to marry and also mandated the inclusion of

gender diversity Gender diversity is equitable or fair representation of people of different genders. It most commonly refers to an equitable ratio of men and women, but may also include people of non-binary genders. Gender diversity on corporate boards has be ...

sex education Sex education, also known as sexual education, sexuality education or sex ed, is the instruction of issues relating to human sexuality, including emotional relations and responsibilities, human sexual anatomy, sexual activity, sexual reproduc ...

Olympics name proposal

The Olympics question proved controversial. While the name '' Chinese Taipei'' is seen by many Taiwanese as confusing and even offensive, many voters and athletes worried that insisting on competing under the name ''Taiwan'' would lead to the total exclusion of Taiwanese athletes from the Olympics. The proposal was rejected by 54.80% of voters.

Questions and results

The ten questions that appeared on the ballot and final results were:

Results

References

External links

Equal Love Taiwan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taiwanese referendum,2018 2018 referendums

Referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...

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