• By Lin Che-yuan and Kayleigh Madjar / Journalist, with the editorial staff

Central Election Commission (CEC) Chairman Lee Chin-yung (李進勇) today warned lawmakers to carefully consider the logistics of holding referendums at the same time as elections, while the legislature was about to discuss a proposal to reinstate the mandate.

The deal was previously proposed in 2021 and did not receive public support following the “chaos” of the 2018 election, Lee told reporters before attending a hearing at the Legislature.

That year, voters cast ballots in 10 referendums alongside nine local elections in one.

Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times

Analytics from this election showed poll workers were unable to handle the volume, Lee said.

The Referendum Law (公民投票法) was therefore amended in June 2019 to dissociate referendums from national elections, he said.

Since then, the 2020 presidential and legislative elections, the 2021 referendums, the 2022 local elections and this year’s presidential and legislative elections have all gone smoothly, he said.

The 2021 vote included a proposal to hold referendums alongside the general election, but that proposal was rejected by the electorate, Lee said.

Parliament was today expected to discuss amendments to the law proposed by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmaker Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) to once again link referendums to general elections.

Lo cited low turnout in separately held referendums, saying only 41 percent of the electorate turned out in 2021, compared to 55 percent in 2018.

If turnout is low, the results may not be representative of public opinion, he said.

The law was amended in 2017 to stipulate that referendums “shall” be held on the same day as national elections when President William Lai (賴清德) was prime minister, he added.

Lo yesterday announced the results of a poll on the issue organized by the New Legislative Think Tank, an organization launched by the lawmaker last month.

The poll showed that 66.3 percent of respondents were in favor of bringing referendums and general elections closer together, with 21.3 percent opposing it and 12.3 percent expressing no opinion.

Additional reporting by Lin Hsin-han