In the referendum on constitutional amendment referendum for "citizenship at the age of 18", there were only more than 5,640,000 votes in favor, far below the threshold of 9,619,697 votes for constitutional amendment referendum.

(Photo by reporter Ye Yongqian)

The referendum has just ended, and the public feels "affordable to lose"

[Reporter Yang Chengyu/Taipei Report] The 18-year-old citizen’s right to amend the constitution has not passed the referendum yesterday. Hu Boyan, a professor of the Law Department of Soochow University, pointed out in an interview that although the four major parties have carried out propaganda, it is obviously not enough; and this When the case was in the Legislative Yuan, it was relatively uncontroversial and did not arouse heated discussions, resulting in a relatively cold issue, and the public may not pay the bill because of this. This is the dilemma of this issue.

Please read on...

Regarding the prospect of future constitutional amendments, Wang Yeli, a professor of political science at National Taiwan University, said in an interview that although some legal scholars suggested that the constitutional interpretation could be adopted, the referendum has just ended. up" feeling.

Regarding the proportion of dissenting votes, Hu Boyan said frankly that it was indeed much higher than he expected. He believed that a major factor was the impact of the election, and the current society has an atmosphere of "punishing the DPP". In addition, as far as he heard, Indeed, some KMT supporters intuitively think that young voters may be more beneficial to the DPP, so they may oppose the case to avoid the expansion of the DPP's power.

Although the Kuomintang has also publicized the case, such ideas are a bit deeply rooted in the blue camp, and it is difficult to wash them away.

On the other hand, Hu Boyan pointed out that this case is relatively uncontroversial in the Legislative Yuan. The consensus reached by the four major party groups may make the public feel less concerned, because highly controversial cases will lead to discussions. Without heat, it could become a dilemma for the case.

Wang Yeli said that although the case reached a consensus in the Legislative Yuan, it is clear that there is not such a high degree of consensus among voters, and there is no distinction between blue and green.

Wang mentioned that there may be more voters who support lowering the age of voting rights, and it has been discussed for a long time. Up vote, or down vote.

Regarding the possibility of constitutional revision in the future, Wang Yeli said bluntly that the current threshold for constitutional revision is really very high, but in any case, if public opinion has not reached a high degree of consensus on constitutional revision, it will be very difficult to promote it.

Although some legal scholars have suggested that it may be possible to deal with it through constitutional interpretation to avoid constitutional amendment, Wang Yeli believes that even in the legal academic circle, there are still different views on this. Even if constitutional interpretation is feasible, it should not be adopted at this stage.

After all, the referendum on the constitutional amendment has just been carried out. If the constitutional interpretation is proposed immediately, the public may feel that they "can't afford to lose", and it may also cause a relatively large political backlash.