About IRI-Asia...........

The Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD) hosted a team of six international observers from the IRI-Asia International Steering Committee (ISC) representing six countries in Asia and Europe from 19-24 March 2008 in Taipei to observe two national-level referendums. Among the observers was the President of the Initiative and Refrendum Institute - Europe, Mr. Bruno Kaufmann, also a member of the IRI-Asia ISC. After observing a total of 60 polling stations in Taipei City, Taipei County, and Kaohsiung City, the observation team issued a statement regarding the referendums, which can be downloaded from the link below. The TFD also invited an observation team from the Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL, website: http://www.anfrel.org) to observe the presidential election......< more >

Mission Statement............

The Initiative & Referendum Institute – Asia is committed to democratizing democracy so that people can participate directly in policy-making and take greater responsibility in governance. To achieve this objective, IRI-Asia is currently: (1) Advancing understanding of and commitment t.......< more >

Brief History

Back in 2003, the long standing public demand for a referendum law in Taiwan gradually led to legislation. President Chen Shui-bian and the Democratic Progressive Party had made many campaign pledges in the year 2000 presidential election for such a law, promising that the right of citizens to initiatives and referendums that is already included in Taiwan’s constitution would be substantiate.......< more >

News

IRI-Asia collects news stories related to direct democracy all over Asia. The news content on this website is updated regularly, so check here for the latest developments in direct democracy in Asia....< more >

IRI-Asia Events

AFTER THE INVALIDATION OF MORE THAN 12 MILLION VOTES ON MARCH 22

THE SECRECY OF THE REFERENDUM VOTE IS ONLY PARTLY ENSURED, ASSESSES INTERNATIONAL OBSERVATION MISSION

– IRI ASIA recommends comprehensive reforms to the Referendum Act

TAIPEI – Taiwanese citizens turned out en masse (76.33% turnout) in the March 22 presidential election and referendums. While the two candidates for the presidency together received 13.1 million votes, 12.4 million ballots were cast for two citizen-initiated referendums. Question No.5 for applying to the UN under the name of “Taiwan” gathered 35.82% of the eligible voters, while question No.6 for applying to “re-enter” the organisation using a “pragmatic” name got 35.74% of the vote.

However, as in all earlier national-level referendums, the popular votes had to be invalidated because they did not meet the required 50% threshold of eligible voters for each issue. This high threshold introduces two options for opposing a measure – by voting no, or by not taking part in the vote. An international team of election and referendum observers invited by the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD) also observed the unacceptable consequences for democracy of the voting procedure used, as the main decision for or against the proposed issues was not made in secrecy within the voting booths, but rather publicly in the voting stations by accepting the referendums ballots or not. Additionally, the international experts from seven Asian countries observed that such an arrangement led some party representatives within voting stations to encourage or discourage voters to take the referendum ballots.....< more >