REFERENDUMS 2021/More people vote against than for referendum initiatives: CEC

The number of people who supported each of the four referendum initiatives voted on Saturday were outnumbered by those who opposed them, Central Election Commission (CEC) Chairman Lee Chin-yung (???) said when releasing the results Saturday.

A total of 3,804,755 voted in favor of the proposal to unseal the long-mothballed Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei, while 4,262,451 voted against, Lee said after the commission completed counting the ballots at 8:20 p.m.

Meanwhile, 3,936,554 people voted for imposing a ban on pork imports containing traces of the controversial feed additive ractopamine, while 4,131,203 voted against the proposal, Lee said.

On the proposal to allow referendums to be held in conjunction with nationwide elections, as they had been until Saturday's referendums, 3,951,882 votes were cast in favor while 4,120,038 votes opposed the initiative, he said.

It was the same with the proposal to relocate state-run oil company CPC Corp. Taiwan's liquefied natural gas terminal away from an algal reef in Taoyuan, as 3,901,171 people voted to support the initiative, and 4,163,464 voted against it, according to Lee.

There were 78,494, 78,108, 73,273 and 80,819 invalid ballots in the four referendums, respectively, and voter turnout was 41.09 percent, including the invalid votes, according to data released by the commission.

The commission will convene to validate and release the official results on Dec. 23, said Lee, who thanked more than 260,000 people who worked on Saturday's referendums.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel