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Rejecting referendum ballots is 'anti-democratic': president

ROC Central News Agency

2008-01-10 22:01:19

    Taipei, Jan. 10 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian said Thursday that the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) has hurt Taiwan's democracy by urging voters to reject referendum ballots in the Jan. 12 legislative elections.

    Chen, who serves concurrently as chairman of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) , made the remarks while campaigning at a local temple for his party's candidate Chuang Ho-tzu for the southern city of Chiayi.

    Describing referendums as a basic human right, Chen said that people are the country's masters and their opinions must be respected, so obstructing, or objecting to, referendums means depriving them of a fundamental civic right.

    Chen also assailed the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party as the world's two political parties most opposed to referendums, saying that although the KMT followed the lead of the DPP by initiating a referendum to be held alongside the legislative elections, it later decided to boycott the referendums under pressure from China.

    Describing the Jan. 12 legislative elections as a competition between a party safeguarding Taiwan and a China-leaning party, Chen stressed that should the DPP suffer a setback in the elections, it will represent a defeat of Taiwan's democracy, justice and people. In other words, it will be a victory for both the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party, he added.

    Fearing voters will be confused by having to pick up so many ballots and that the confusion could hurt the chances of maintaining the KMT-led "pan blue alliance" majority in the Legislative Yuan, the KMT decided last week to boycott the referendums accompanying the legislative elections.

    In the upcoming elections, in which a new "single-member constituency, two-vote" electoral system will be adopted for the first time, each voter will receive a total of four ballots: two for the legislative elections and two for referendums initiated by the two major parties.

(By Luis Huang)

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