TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A legislative committee on Thursday passed a draft amendment to lower Taiwan’s voting age from 20 to 18, while also urging lawmakers to pursue a parallel constitutional amendment to avoid potential legal disputes.
Article 130 of the Constitution stipulates that citizens aged 20 or older have the right to vote, and citizens aged 23 or older have the right to run for office, per CNA. Lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties have proposed amendments to election and recall laws to lower the voting age to 18.
The Internal Administration Committee invited Interior Minister Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) to attend Thursday’s review of the draft amendments, CNA reported. During negotiations, Liu said that as of the end of February, Taiwan had 411,731 citizens aged 18 to 20.
Liu said the number of eligible voters is expected to increase further by election time. She estimated that about 70% of them are concentrated in the six special municipalities.
She said the executive branch is not responsible for interpreting the Constitution and noted that opinions differed during previous public hearings on whether a constitutional amendment was necessary. Since the legislature has already established a constitutional amendment committee, the matter should be handled within the legislature’s authority, and the Ministry of the Interior would respect its decision.
She added that if only the Public Officials Election and Recall Act were amended to lower the voting age to 18, “there would definitely be doubts in future elections.” She said the issue could not be resolved solely through executive interpretation and would likely require judicial review.
Central Election Commission Department of Electoral Affairs chief Wang Hsiao-lin (王曉麟) said lowering the voting age to 18 would add an estimated 410,000 voters and affect election operations, such as polling station arrangements and voter registry compilation, according to CNA.
He added that this year’s elections are scheduled for Nov. 28, with the official election announcement to be issued on Aug. 20, meaning any amendments passed after that date would not apply until future elections.
Following negotiations, the committee approved a draft amendment stipulating that citizens aged 18 or older would have the right to vote. They would also be eligible to sign nomination petitions for presidential and vice presidential candidates.
CNA reported that the committee also passed a supplementary resolution stating that granting voting rights to 18-year-olds is a global trend and that there is a broad consensus in the legislature to lower the voting age. However, because the issue involves potential constitutional questions under Article 130, it may require interpretation by the Constitutional Court.
To avoid future constitutional disputes, the resolution urges the constitutional amendment committee to launch parallel efforts to amend the Constitution to extend voting rights to 18-year-olds.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Internal Administration Committee convener and KMT Legislator Liao Hsien-hsiang (廖先翔) said the review of the amendments to both election laws had been completed, but cross-party caucus negotiations would still be required before the bills could proceed to the legislative floor, CNA reported.
