Taiwan election commission warns against combining referendums onto one ballot
Taiwan's election chief says a last-minute rule change to put all referendum questions on a single ballot could wreck the November vote, and the opposition is firing back.
- Lawmakers approved three referendums — on traffic fines, corporal punishment, and restarting nuclear power — and the KMT now wants them merged onto one ballot to speed up voting and counting.
- Election commission chief Yu Ying-lung calls the plan rushed, warning that with under 100 days to the November 28 local elections it risks an election-day disaster.
- Taiwan still counts votes by hand on paper ballots, so changing the ballot format means overhauling the whole counting system, not just the paper.
- The KMT says the commission itself complained about ballot chaos after 10 referendums bogged down the 2018 elections, and is now contradicting itself.
- Nuclear power is back in play elsewhere too: Premier Cho Jung-tai says the government is open to small modular reactors and fusion as AI data centers drive up electricity demand.
Outlook: The fight over ballot rules will likely drag on into the fall, with the election commission and the opposition-controlled legislature at odds as the November vote approaches.