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進入《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》Parties clash over voting age review
Democratic Progressive Party legislators yesterday hold a press conference at the Legislative Yuan to accuse the Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） of blocking efforts to lower the voting age from 20 to 18. Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
GOING NOWHERE: The DPP said the KMT was holding the resolution ‘hostage’ by binding it with an absentee voting rule, while the KMT accused the DPP of stalling
By Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter
The Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） and the Democratic Progressive Party （DPP） caucuses separately held news conferences yesterday morning, with each side accusing the other of blocking the lowering of the voting age from 20 to 18.
The Constitutional Amendment Committee had dispersed on Wednesday without reaching a resolution on lowering the voting age after more than 12 hours of review and negotiation.
While the KMT accused the DPP of stalling the process, the DPP questioned the KMT’s motive in refusing — despite the parties’ consensus on lowering the voting age — to put “review process completed” in the conclusion.
KMT Legislator Lu Hsueh-chang （呂學樟）, who chaired Wednesday’s committee meeting, said that such wording should not be placed in the resolution, “as there is still the part about absentee voting that had not been discussed.”
The KMT version of the draft amendment to the Constitution has placed voting age reform and absentee voting in the same proposed Constitution article.
However, the DPP has called the KMT’s move “political calculation.”
DPP Legislator Cheng Li-chiun （鄭麗君） said the reason the KMT tied the two unrelated issues together was nothing less than taking the voting age issue hostage.
“And when they were asked to have the lowering of the voting age independently passed as ‘reviewed,’ they killed the hostage, as they feared the kidnap could fail,” Cheng said.
The sniping extended to the committee meeting yesterday, where absentee voting, proposed by the KMT, was discussed.
Cheng continued to accuse the KMT of attempting to turn the voting age threshold into a bargaining chip.
“As there is a high likelihood that the cases marked as reviewed by the committee separately could be rendered as separate questions in a subsequent referendum [required for the constitutional amendments], the KMT is afraid that they could not bind lowering of the voting age with absentee voting,” Cheng said.
Lu and KMT Legislator Lin Te-fu （林德福） denied the accusation, saying that both issues are to “expand people’s political participation and guarantee citizens’ rights to democracy.”
“If the KMT is so eager to expand political participation, why does it keep obstructing the amendments proposed to the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act （公職人員選舉罷免法） and the Referendum Act （公民投票法） [that call for the lowering of the thresholds]?” DPP Legislator Lee Kun-tse （李昆澤） asked.
Questioning the KMT’s intention in elevating absentee voting to the constitutional level, several DPP lawmakers said that there have been bills proposed and processed in the Internal Administration Committee about absentee voting, showing that the issue could and should be dealt with on the legal level.
“However, the fact is, those bills were repeatedly blocked by the DPP,” KMT Legislator Ting Shou-chung （丁守中） said. “When the bills were dealt with on the legal level, they said the topic was a constitutional one. Now that the constitutional amendment has been proposed, the DPP says it’s a legal issue.”
Cheng said that the Constitution does not disallow absentee voting, “otherwise there would not have been related bills discussed already in the Internal Administration Committee.”
“So there is no need to amend the Constitution on this particular issue, let alone put it in the same article with the voting age, which is articulated in the current Constitution,” she said.
As for the blocking of the bills on absentee voting, Cheng said it does not constitute the necessary condition for absentee voting to be written into the Constitution.
“Or maybe I can also have those bills calling for the return of the KMT’s illegitimately gained party assets and in relation to transitional justice, which have been constantly blocked by the KMT, written into the Constitution as well?” Cheng added.
As no consensus on absentee voting was reached, the review meeting yesterday ended with reserved resolutions to be further discussed in cross-party negotiations.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
