Taipei, April 10 (CNA) Over 1,000 people on Friday rallied at the Legislative Yuan to demand law amendments that they say will improve Taiwan's democracy, one year after student activists evacuated the legislative chamber to end their 24-day protest against a controversial trade pact with China.

The protestors demanded lawmakers pass amendments to Taiwan's Referendum Act and Civil Servants Election and Recall Act during the current legislative session before Oct. 3 to "give the power back to the people."

No real democracy could take place without lowering the threshold for proposing and passing referendums and recall motions, according to members from the People Rule Foundation (人民作主教育基金會), Taiwan March (島國前進), Citizen 1985 (公民1985行動聯盟) and Appendectomy Project (割闌尾計畫).

Their petition echoed the "Sunflower Movement" that lasted between March 18 and April 10 last year. The movement was a student-led occupation of Taiwan's parliament over a trade-in-services agreement with China.

Three of the Sunflower Movement leaders, Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆), Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷) and Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), also participated in Friday's event.

Still another participant was political heavyweight Lin Yi-hsiung (林義雄), founder of the People Rule Foundation and a former chairman of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party.

He said the protesters will launch another march on Oct. 3, when they will rally at the Legislature again to make their voices heard.

(By Lee Hsin-Yin)
ENDITEM/cs