Year-End Referendum Merged with Elections: Six Proposals Reduced to Three! Full Text and Passing Threshold Explained

On the 14th, Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan passed three referendum proposals—dedicated use of traffic fines, flogging punishment, and restarting nuclear power—and confirmed they will be voted on concurrently with the November 28 nine-in-one local elections. The Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) originally planned six referendum proposals together, but after negotiations, the number was drastically reduced. Notably, the KMT caucus unanimously opposed the euthanasia referendum, preventing it from entering the voting process.

The three approved referendum proposals are as follows: the flogging and nuclear restart proposals were submitted by the KMT caucus, while the dedicated traffic fines proposal was submitted by the TPP caucus. Their main texts are detailed below:

- Flogging Referendum: Do you agree that the government should establish a special penal system—flogging—that courts can order and enforce for crimes such as sexual assault, child abuse, large-scale fraud, and aggravated fraud, in order to deter ongoing criminal activity? - Nuclear Restart Referendum: Do you agree that the government should abolish the nuclear-free homeland energy policy to ensure public health, stable electricity supply, affordable electricity prices, enhanced national defense resilience, and support for artificial intelligence industry development? - Dedicated Traffic Fines Referendum: Do you agree that revenue from traffic violation fines should be fully allocated to improving road safety environments and subsidizing public transportation, rather than continuously increasing technological enforcement equipment?

According to Article 29 of the Referendum Act, a referendum passes only if two conditions are met simultaneously: first, the number of valid yes votes must exceed the number of no votes; second, the yes votes must reach at least 25% of the total number of eligible voters nationwide. Based on the most recent presidential election’s electorate of 19,548,531 people, the threshold for passage is 4,887,133 yes votes. Even if yes votes outnumber no votes, the proposal fails if this 25% threshold is not met.

If a referendum passes and concerns a law or autonomous regulation, the original law becomes void three days after the official announcement. If it involves a major policy, the president or responsible agency must take necessary actions to implement the outcome. If a referendum fails, the same issue cannot be proposed again within two years. Therefore, if these three issues—dedicated traffic fines, flogging, and nuclear restart—fail this time, they cannot be revisited until at least two years later.