At the Cabinet's weekly meeting Thursday, Premier Su Tseng-chang received a briefing from the Central Election Commission on the results of the 2021 national referendum. The referendum results represent not a win or loss for any political party but the will of the people. He encouraged his Cabinet to be more humble moving forward, work harder to serve the people, and pay back the people for entrusting themselves to the government.
The 2021 national referendum was held successfully five days ago, the premier said. This marks the first time in Taiwan's history that a referendum to decide on policy issues was held separately from a general election to vote for public officials. Despite the complexity of the referendum issues, more than 8 million citizens turned out to express their will clearly and plainly. This is the realization of direct democracy and civil rights in the people's hands, where the people of the nation come together to decide Taiwan's future and further deepen Taiwan's democracy.
With the votes cast in the referendum, the people have shown support for the government's policies and expressed recognition that the nation is heading down the right track. They've also chosen to abide by international norms to declare to the world Taiwan's willingness in connecting with the international community, and clearly express support for energy transformation. Our citizens hope for an economically and environmentally balanced manner to provide reliable electricity and drive economic growth, and to find a more rational way to deliberate public policies going forward, the premier said.
The referendum's four initiatives concerned the fate of a liquefied natural gas terminal being built near an algal reef in Taoyuan, the import of pork containing traces of the feed additive ractopamine, whether referendums should be held in conjunction with general elections, and whether the long-mothballed Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei should be unsealed for commercial operations.