TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Kuomintang (KMT) legislators held a press conference on Monday (Oct. 21) to call for referendums to be held simultaneously with elections and a referendum on the death penalty.

A group of 39 legislators led by the KMT’s Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強), signed a statement in support of amending the referendum law, per CNA. Speaking at the legislature, Lo said the group is calling on members of the ruling and opposition parties to “return power to the people.”

Lo said he would ask the leader of the KMT’s Internal Affairs Committee Hsu Hsin-ying (徐欣瑩) to prioritize the bill to amend the law. He said the bill had already passed its first reading, and that he hoped it would be passed into law as soon as possible.  

Referendums were decoupled from elections in 2021. That same year, a referendum was held to decide if referendums should be held at the same time as elections, with about 51% of votes against and 48.9% in favor of the change.

He added that according to his polling, more than 80% of people oppose abolishing the death penalty, and the same number was dissatisfied with the Constitutional Court’s September decision to limit its use. He also said his polling had found that 65% of people wanted a referendum on the issue to be held in tandem with local elections in 2026.

Lo did not provide details regarding the sample size or methods of his polling. A June study by Taiwan’s Chinese Association for Human Rights found that 83.2% of the public opposed the abolition of the death penalty.