Mechanics
The election was by direct popular vote; a simple plurality was required to win. According to the Constitution of the Republic of China, all citizens of the Republic of China of at least 20 years of age who have held household registration in the "Free Area of the Republic of China" (Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu, etc.) were eligible to vote. Under existing law, all voters travelled to their registered precincts to vote. Ballots were counted by hand at the precincts and the KMT declared victory less than three hours after the close of polls at 4:00 pm.
Because of KMT strategy of having people boycott the referendum, one major controversy, like in 2004 was the format of the polling, specifically as whether the referendum questions would be on the same or different ballots as the Presidency. While in 2004 the Central Electoral Commission allowed U shaped line in which people would first cast a ballot for President and then cast a separate ballot for each of the two questions, the Commission ordered voters to cast all votes at once on separate ballots. Voters who choose not to cast a referendum ballot simply declined to pick up the extra two ballots.
Read more about this topic: Republic Of China Presidential Election, 2008
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