New Immigrants Call for Referendum Info in Native Languages|看不懂選舉公報 新住民籲提供多語版

Ten referendums will be held in conjunction with the nine-in-one elections, and many announcements have been made in recent days regarding these events. However, the Central Election Commission only issues contents in Chinese. Taiwan has 260,000 new immigrants who are citizens and therefore have the right to vote. They plead the CEC should provide information in their native languages.


This is the bulletin issued by the Central Election Commission regarding the referendums that will be held in conjunction with the nine-in-one elections, and it is packed with information. There are three pages of information on the 10 referendums, including their wording and explanations. New immigrants who have lived in Taiwan for 15 to 20 years say that even if they can read at a junior high school level, the information in the bulletin is still circuitous and confusing.

In Taiwan, you can vote to make your opinions heard, but we look at the words and we don't understand anything. How are we supposed to vote then? And then people next to you tell you what to vote, and you follow their instructions. Is there any meaning to this then?

If new immigrants cannot understand the referendum topics, how are they supposed to vote? Therefore, on Nov. 16, new immigrant groups gathered outside the Central Election Commission to ask the CEC to issue election information in various languages. They also said this information should be made available at least one month before the election so it can be studied carefully. They said if they don't have this information, then holding a Republic of China identification card will be useless. There are currently 260,000 new immigrants who are citizens and therefore eligible to vote.

The government is talking about the New Southbound Policy every day, but it is treating new immigrants like fools.