Referendums in Taiwan

The referendums in Taiwan are governed by the Referendum Act of Taiwan, which was enacted by the Legislative Yuan in December 2003. While the initiative follows from the Three Principles of the People and referendums are mentioned by Chapter 9, Article 136 of the Constitution of 1947, a law pertaining specifically to referendums was not enacted until 2003. The Referendum Act was promoted by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) politicians such as Chai Trong-rong, Lin Yi-hsiung, Yeh Chu-lan, Lu Hsiu-yi, Lin Cho-shui, and the Chen Shui-bian-Annette Lu administration. While both citizens of Taiwan and the Legislative Yuan can initiate the referendum process, the Pan-Blue Coalition held a legislative majority at the time of the act's promulgation, and set an extremely high bar to prevent its application.

As of 2016, no national referendum has been carried out validly yet and three local referendums are valid. New Power Party, Taiwan Solidarity Union, and some DPP members are major forces in the legislature calling for reform.

Article 17 of the Referendum Act states "When the country is under the threat of foreign force and the national sovereignty is likely to be changed, the President may, with the resolution of the meeting of the Executive Yuan, apply the matters regarding the national security to referendum." Such a referendum has not yet been held.

There have been six national referendums in Taiwan. Two referendum questions were asked in each of three national elections:

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