Taiwan’s move to implement absentee voting in 2012 will be postponed if the presidential and legislative elections are held side by side next year, Minister of Interior Jiang Yi-huah said April 13.
“If the Central Election Commission moves forward with its proposal, we will shelve absentee voting for the presidential elections,” Jiang said. “Otherwise, we will continue pushing the transfer voting system.”
The next presidential race is set for March 2012, with voters expected to elect new legislators in December 2011 or January 2012. It is believed that combining the elections would minimize social costs.
According to Jiang, absentee voting allows eligible voters to cast their ballots at polling stations outside of their registered place of residence. But Taiwan’s legislative election system—involving a large number of candidates and electoral districts around the country—would be too complicated for absentee voting, he added.
The Ministry of the Interior will send the proposed amendments to the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act to the Legislature for review if the CEC decides to separate the two elections April 19, Jiang said. “Legal revision is required for absentee voting and we hope to see the revised bill passed during this legislative session.”
In addition, an MOI survey in March found a majority of the public supported both absentee voting and the two-in-one elections, with only around 30 percent of respondents opposed to the ideas. It also showed that compared with absentee voting, the combined elections received slightly more backing.
