TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan's referendum on a constitutional amendment to lower the voting age from 20 to 18 failed to pass on Saturday (Nov. 26).
For it to pass, at least half of eligible voters in Taiwan needed to vote "yes," which means over 9.61 million people need to vote in favor of it. This is much higher than the 8.17 million ballots cast for President Tsai Ing-wen in the 2020 presidential election.
This time around, about 58.97% of eligible voters cast their ballots, but only 53% of those people voted for the referendum. That means the referendum only saw 5.64 million votes in favor of it.
Chairwoman of the Taiwan Alliance for Advancement of Youth Rights and Welfare Lin Yue-chin expressed disappointment at the results.
According to Lin, Taiwan's failure to pass the referendum may lead to more generational conflict and a lopsided focus when drawing up policies in the future.
Experts also believe that though the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had put forth the referendum, it was more of a political tool to jab the main opposition party Kuomintang (KMT), who has been historically less popular among the youth.
Niu Tse-hsun, the dean of the Department of Advertising at the Chinese Culture University remarked that the DPP miscalculated the reactions of the KMT, expecting the opposition to express objections to the referendum. However, that was not the case.
Academics in the United States also expressed shock at the results of the referendum vote, as more than 5 million people voted against it.
Currently, Taiwan is one of the few democracies in the world with a voting age requirement of 20 rather than 18 years old.
With the strict rules surrounding constitutional amendments combined with the votes of conservatives in the nation, Taiwan failed to assist young adults in making their voices heard in future elections this time around.
