Taiwanese align with govt position in referendum

TAIPEI • Taiwanese voters aligned with the position of President Tsai Ing-wen's government on four issues in a referendum yesterday, a win for the leader ahead of elections next year.

More than 50 per cent voters said "no" to reimposing a ban on imports of pork containing trace amounts of ractopamine, a feed additive used by many US producers.

A "yes" result would have presented Ms Tsai with the dilemma of conforming to the people's will and potentially upset Taiwan's most important political and military backer, or keep the doors open to US pork and risk a domestic political backlash less than a year before key regional elections.

Maintaining Washington's support is particularly important to Taipei as Beijing ramps up a pressure campaign on the democratically ruled island that the Communist Party considers a breakaway territory.

For decades, the United States had been pushing the Taiwan government to open the island's market to pork containing ractopamine, saying the ban was the biggest impediment to a bilateral free trade agreement.

In an effort to nudge the US towards starting formal trade talks, Ms Tsai overturned the ban last year, triggering fierce debate in Taiwan over concerns that the drug in the meat could harm people who consume it.

The Tsai administration had urged the public to reject a new ban, saying the move is in Taiwan's best interests as it would boost trade relations with the US.

"Taiwan's people hope to walk out to the world and actively participate in international society," Ms Tsai said at a briefing yesterday evening after most of the votes were counted.

The result is beneficial for Taiwan's pledge to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP, and elevate bilateral trade with the US, according to Mr John Deng, a minister without portfolio. He was speaking at a separate briefing yesterday.

Voters also think Taiwan should not activate the Lungmen Nuclear Plant that was almost completed but then mothballed in 2014 due to rising anti-nuclear sentiment in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in Japan three years earlier.

They also voted "no" to whether the state-controlled energy company CPC Corp should move a planned US$2 billion (S$2.7 billion) liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal from its proposed site beside a 7,000-year-old algal reef on Taiwan's northern coast.

Environmental activists have criticised the damage that the project will cause to the reef and its nearby ecosystem but the government said increasing LNG imports is crucial to reducing the economy's reliance on coal while phasing out nuclear energy.

The fourth issue on the ballot was whether referendums should be held in conjunction with national elections if a proposal was accepted by the Central Election Commission less than six months ahead of a vote.

About eight million people took part in yesterday's referendum, less than half of the 19.8 million citizens who were eligible to vote.

In order for a question to be approved, at least 4.95 million people must vote in favour, with more people choosing yes than no. All four issues did not reach the minimum votes for the initiatives to pass.

The referendum outcome is a major disappointment for main opposition party Kuomintang (KMT) as it had campaigned hard on the pork and LNG terminal issues.

Party chairman Eric Chu apologised to his party for the setback, adding that "the referendum is dead. The Kuomintang will shoulder the responsibility and blame no one".

He called the result a "victory for an authoritarian government", adding that it is "extremely harmful to the civic groups and people who seek to take democracy further".

BLOOMBERG