The Central Election Commission (CEC) passed a referendum proposal Tuesday initiated by the opposition Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) on a planned cross- Taiwan Strait trade pact. TSU Chairman Huang Kun-hui initiated the proposal, in which he asked if the public agrees with the government's signing of an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China. The CEC said that according to the Referendum Law, a referendum proposal, in order to become valid, requires the signatures collected to reach 0.5 percent of the total eligible voters in the latest presidential election. As the number of eligible voters in the 2008 presidential election was 17.32 million, this means Huang needed to collect more than 86,600 signatures in order for the process to continue to the next stage. However, Huang collected 109,720 signatures, the CEC said, adding that the petition will now be sent to the Referendum Screening Committee under the Executive Yuan for confirmation. The committee will notify the CEC of the confirmation results within 30 days. The TSU head, who believes the signing of the ECFA will compromise Taiwan's sovereignty and make the country even more reliant on China, will then require to collect more than 866,000 signatures -- 5 percent of the number of eligible voters in the last presidential election -- in order for the ECFA question to be put to a referendum. 