Casino referendum for Taiwan’s Penghu Island pushed back to end of 2016

It won’t be long before residents in Taiwan’s outlying island of Penghu will have to decide on whether they will allow casinos in their hometowns, local media outlets have reported.

This was after the group pushing for the legalization organization gathered more than enough signatures to trigger a local referendum on the casino issue.

Chen Meng, head of the Alliance Promoting Internationalization of Penghu, was quoted by Focus Taiwan, Chen Meng saying the group had already gathered more than 5,000 signatures of eligible voters in the country—surpassing the minimum threshold of 4,113 signatures, or about 5 percent of the total eligible voters, required for a referendum.

Chen said they only need to reach their goal of 6,000 signatures before the group will submit them to the election commission for a review. The commission is expected to hold at least 100 public briefings before it prepares for a referendum.