The Power of the Times Legislative Yuan Party Group held a press conference on "18-year-old citizenship, amended the law to realize it".

(Photographed by reporter Fang Bin)

[Reporter Yang Chengyu/Taipei Report] The referendum on the "18-year-old citizenship" constitutional amendment was voted on the 26th of last month. It was the first constitutional amendment in the history of our country to be referred to the referendum. There were more than 5.01 million dissenting votes. Because the consenting votes failed to pass half of the total number of electors this time, the result was not passed.

The Legislative Yuan Times Power Party Group held a press conference today (23rd), calling for amendments to some provisions of the "Public Official Election and Recall Law" to lower voting rights to 18 years old.

The Legislative Yuan will handle the report today and hand over the case to the Home Affairs Committee for review.

The Power of the Times Party Caucus proposed the "Draft Amendment to Articles 14 and 134 of the Law on Election and Recall of Public Officials", which lowers the age limit for voting rights to 18 years old.

In addition, in order to implement the "Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities" (CRPD), to protect the voting rights of persons with disabilities from discriminatory restrictions, and to promote political fairness, the law was also proposed to remove restrictions on persons subject to guardianship.

The original article reads "At least 20 years old, except for those who have not been revoked under the guardianship declaration, they have the right to vote"; the draft law proposed by Shili's party group is "18 years old, they have the right to vote."

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Legislator Chen Jiaohua appealed not to allow unreasonable thresholds for constitutional revision to hinder the implementation of justice for generations.

The results of this referendum referendum highlight the difficulty in amending the constitution due to the high threshold for amending the constitution. It also shows that the public has not fully understood the significance of this constitutional amendment.

However, judging from the results, the consent vote still received more support from voters.

Chen Jiaohua said that the unreasonable threshold for constitutional amendments established by the previous generation should not hinder young people's opportunities to participate in politics.

In order to promote youth participation in politics and justice for generations, the efforts for 18-year-old citizenship should not be stopped by the failure of the referendum. Therefore, the Times Force Party Group proposed a draft law amendment, hoping that the ruling and opposition parties will amend the law together in the remainder of this session to implement the "18-year-old citizenship".

Legislator Qiu Xianzhi pointed out that Article 130 of the Constitution stipulates that "People of the Republic of China who have reached the age of 20 have the right to vote in accordance with the law. ".

Many experts and scholars have pointed out that this regulation sets the upper limit for legislators to exercise voting rights, not the lower limit, which means that 18-year-old citizenship rights can be established, but 21-year-old citizenship rights cannot be established. This is a reasonable explanation.

Qiu Xianzhi emphasized that the Constitution is the fundamental law of the country, and its purpose is to limit the power of the state and extend the power of the people; according to Article 17 of the Constitution, the people have the right to election, recall, creation and referendum, which is a basic human right; lowering the voting age limit, It is also in line with the principle of Article 1 of the Constitution, "a democratic republic owned by the people and governed by the people for the people".

Therefore, Article 130 of the Constitution should be interpreted more favorable to the people.

And many experts and scholars have pointed out that directly amending the law is not unconstitutional, and it can better uphold the basic rights of the people entrusted by the constitution.

Legislator Wang Wanyu said that the referendum on constitutional amendments came to an end at the end of last month, and it may be controversial to propose amendments now, but the power of the times believes that defending values ​​and practical ideals should not be deterred by disputes.

Judging from the results of the referendum vote, the yes votes are still greater than the disapprove votes, and the project of justice for generations cannot be stagnated due to the limitation of the constitutional amendment threshold.

Wang Wanyu mentioned that some people may question, if it is feasible to amend the law, why bother to amend the constitution in the first place?

However, she explained that how to deal with 18-year-old citizenship has always been controversial, and Shi Li did not have a correct answer.

However, as a legislator and a political party that firmly believes in intergenerational justice, we must exhaust all possible ways to implement intergenerational justice and 18-year-old citizenship together.

Wang Wanyu said frankly that the possibility of violating the constitution does exist, but since all political parties in the ruling and opposition parties previously supported the 18-year-old citizenship amendment, they should also support the amendment.

Only by passing the third reading of the amendment can we know whether it is unconstitutional.

Therefore, Shili calls on all parties in the ruling and opposition parties to face it together, not only to give the 18-year-old citizenship a chance, but also to the future generations, and to tell the young generation that "we are still working hard."

Times Power legislators Chen Jiaohua (from left), Wang Wanyu and Qiu Xianzhi in front of the Legislative Yuan this morning (23) called on the government and the opposition to support the revision of the electoral strike law and lower the voting age to 18.

(Photo by reporter Yang Chengyu)