Overseas electronic voting 'completely unfeasible': Premier Cho

Taipei, April 22 (CNA) Taiwan's Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) suggested Tuesday that electronic voting by Taiwanese citizens living abroad was "completely unfeasible" due to potential manipulation by China.

"We cannot consider or accept overseas electronic voting at this stage," Cho told lawmakers at the Legislative Yuan, signaling the cabinet's opposition to a referendum proposal raised by the Taiwan People's Party (TPP) last week.

The risk of overseas voters being subject to "control by foreign hostile forces" in elections was "too great," Cho said in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Lin I-chin's (林宜瑾) question about Chinese threat to Taiwan's democracy.

The TPP's bill, which was submitted directly to second reading, aims to allow eligible voters to cast ballots outside their registered electoral district by legalizing domestic transfer voting.

Lin criticized the TPP for failing to define clearly the definitions of absentee voting and domestic transfer voting in its proposal. Some lawmakers have also expressed concern that the bill could pave the way for future implementation of absentee or electronic voting systems. .

Cho drew a sharp distinction between overseas and domestic voting reforms, saying the latter "could be discussed by everyone" -- but only within the context of national elections, not local ones.

He cautioned that allowing voters from across the country to cast ballots in a single local race would lead to "big difficulties."

Central Election Committee (CEC) Chairman Lee Chin-yung (李進勇) told lawmakers that the executive branch had been reviewing absentee voting for some time, but warned that it would be "extremely serious" if any policy impacted the stability of electoral work.

He added that discussions were still ongoing and any further steps would be taken only after sufficient safeguards were put in place.