Cabinet asks for revote on bill tightening recall petition rules

Taipei, Jan. 24 (CNA) The Cabinet will ask the Legislature to hold a revote on legislation that tightened requirements for petitions used to initiate a recall of an elected official, it said in a press release Friday evening.

The decision to have lawmakers reconsider the amendments to the Public Officials Election and Recall Act that passed the Legislature on Dec. 20, 2024, was signed off on by Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) during a meeting at the Executive Yuan, the statement said.

The Cabinet's request will have to be formally approved by the president before the Legislature holds a revote.

In its statement, the Cabinet contended that the amendments were "difficult to implement" because they raised the thresholds for recall petitions, thus "exceedingly restricting" the public's right to recall an elected official and "significantly increasing the burden" of local electoral authorities.

Describing the bill as "difficult to implement" is a precondition for asking a revote, according to the Constitution, but the Cabinet did not provide any details on what steps would be more difficult.

This marked the third time the Cabinet has requested a revote by lawmakers in an attempt to overturn bills passed by the current Legislature.

The Cabinet's previous two attempts were unsuccessful, as lawmakers from the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and the Taiwan People's Party (TPP), who hold a majority in the Legislature, continued to uphold the bills they had jointly pushed through.

The amendments to the Public Officials Election and Recall Act were proposed by KMT lawmakers and backed by their TPP counterparts.

The revisions would require individuals initiating a recall petition and those who sign up to such an initiative to provide photocopies of their identification cards when submitting their petition signatures.

The amendments also included punitive measures, stipulating that individuals found guilty of using someone else's identification or forging an ID for a recall petition may face up to five years in prison or a fine of up to NT$1 million (US$30,592).

At present, campaigners only have to present the ID numbers and registered addresses of endorsers of the recall petition to local election commissions, a process some critics argue has been abused.