Taiwan's opposition parties are pushing three referendums onto the year-end local election ballot, and critics say it is election mobilization rather than real policy — a bad sign for the quality of the country's politics.

• The KMT and TPP forced through three referendum proposals: adding caning as a criminal punishment, earmarking traffic fine revenue, and scrapping the nuclear-free homeland policy.
• The election commission is due to announce whether the proposals pass review on the 28th.
• Legal scholars call caning a step backwards, saying it violates the human rights treaties Taiwan has written into its own law and exploits public anger at crime.
• The ruling DPP says the traffic fine question could simply be handled by normal lawmaking, so putting it to a national vote treats voters as campaign props.
• The nuclear vote is the fourth pro-nuclear referendum in eight years, and it leans on blackout fears while staying silent on nuclear waste.

Outlook: Even if the proposals clear review, their effect on the year-end races looks limited — leading candidates like Taipei mayor Chiang Wan-an are barely mentioning them.