Taiwan will be holding a constitutional referendum on Nov. 26, the same day as the local elections. The question on the vote will be on whether the Constitution should be amended to lower the voting age from 20 to 18 years. To promote the referendum, the Central Election Commission on Thursday launched a campaign float at a Ghost Month parade in Keelung. Officials say it is crucial that turnout is high, as the threshold for constitutional referendums are higher than for normal votes. Let’s hear from the CEC.
Lee Chin-yung
Central Election Commission
On the same day as the election, we will hold the first constitutional referendum in which the public has a say. It is a very important moment. Since today Keelung is holding this massive event, we decided to promote the referendum here. We hope that everyone can see just how important this constitutional referendum is for democracy.
At least half of Taiwan’s electorate must vote in favor of the referendum for the amendment to pass, and that will not be an easy task. Taking the 2020 presidential elections as an example, a successful constitutional referendum then would’ve required 9.65 million votes. To put it into perspective, President Tsai Ing-wen, who then won the highest number of votes ever in a nationwide election, won just over 8.17 million votes. Had the vote been a constitutional referendum, the votes would have fallen short of the minimum threshold by more than 1 million votes.