Legislature Makes Announcement on Voting Age 立院公告18歲公民權修憲案 6個月後交複決

A formal announcement of a constitutional amendment to lower the voting age to 18 was made on March 28. Legislative Speaker You Si-kun says a referendum will be held within three months once six months pass from the announcement.

Legislative President You Si-kun and Kuomintang legislative caucus whip William Tseng jointly posted an announcement on the bulletin board outside the legislature's Chunhsian Building. The whips of all political parties jointly announced that the legislature had passed the third reading of a constitutional amendment to lower the voting age to 18.

You Si-kun, President, Legislative Yuan: “It's the first constitutional amendment in 17 years, and it also differs from past ones in that it will be the first time in Taiwan's history that a second vote will be held via a referendum for a constitutional amendment to take effect.”

You said the draft bill will be delivered to the Central Election Commission once the six-month period between March 28 and Sept. 28 is over, and a referendum will be held within three months after that. If half of the voters agree, then the constitution can be amended. However, a consensus hasn't yet been reached on whether the referendum should be held in conjunction with the year-end local elections.

William Tseng, KMT Legislative Caucus Whip: “The Democratic Progressive Party loudly and actively demanded in the past that referendums shouldn't be tied to elections. That was the DPP's position, so the Kuomintang is absolutely not fixing the game.”

Ker Chien-ming, DPP Legislative Caucus Whip: “What William Tseng just said is inverting right and wrong. In the past, referendums and elections were of course one thing, and constitutional amendments were another. Constitutional amendments are the people conducting a second vote. This is a constitutional referendum. The threshold is so high, so it has to be bound with elections.”

KMT Legislator Hsieh Yi-fong posted that she supports lowering the voting age to 18, and the KMT should continue pushing for other reforms such as lowering the minimum age for a president to 35 and implementing absentee voting.

立法院長游錫堃和國民黨立院黨團總召曾銘宗一人一邊，在立法院群賢樓外的布告欄張貼醒目公告。各黨團總召齊聚一堂，公告立法院三讀通過18歲公民權憲法修正案。

游錫堃說：「不但是17年來的第一次，而這一次的修憲案跟過去不同，公民複決可以說是台灣歷史上第一次用公民複決的方式，來讓修憲案能夠生效。」

游錫堃表示，從3月28日到9月28日，6個月完成公告後就送交中選會，並在3個月內舉行公民複決投票，如果獲得公民二分之一同意，就能完成修憲程序。不過公投到底要不要綁大選？藍綠仍抱持相反意見。

立法院國民黨團總召曾銘宗表示：「民進黨過去強烈主張公投不能綁大選，這是民進黨的意見，所以國民黨絕對沒有打假球。」

立法院民進黨團總召柯建銘則反駁：「剛才曾銘宗講話完全顛倒是非，過去當然公投和大選是一回事，修憲是一回事情，修憲是一個公民複決，這個是公民複決的公投入憲，而且門檻這麼高，一定要和大選綁在一起。」

為了公民複決究竟要不要綁年底九合一大選？國民兩黨立院黨團總召在鏡頭前針鋒相對。另外，國民黨立委謝衣鳳也拋出想法，她表示不但贊成18歲公民權，其他像是參考美國將總統參選年齡調降至35歲，以及落實不在籍投票等，國民黨都應該繼續推動。