Results of the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) primary, in which controversial banker Hsueh Ling (薛凌) topped the list of legislators-at-large, had many shaking their heads about the party's determination to enforce reforms.
The DPP finished its legislative primary on Sunday with unexpected results.
Hsueh, the chairwoman of Sunny Bank (楊信銀行) and the wife of incumbent Legislator Chen Sheng-hung (陳勝宏), has been charged with insider trading.
Her marriage has also been criticized as unethical because her husband was divorced.
DPP officials yesterday expressed disapproval of Hsueh's performance and said her being listed atop the party's list of candidates for legislator at large put the party's image at risk.
"It did serious damage to the party, a combination of all the worst impacts," Legislator Tuan Yi-kan (段宜康) said.
Big problem
Legislator Shen Fu-hsiung (
Shen said the party has conducted seven rounds of revisions for regulations to select legislators-at-large in past years, but the changes have failed to stop rampant vote-buying.
"No matter how many times we change the regulations, money still talks and the human weakness still succumbs to it," Shen said.
Shen was referring to the practice of candidates paying the membership fees for party members in exchange for their support.
The annual party membership fee is NT$300, but many party members have left years of fees unpaid.
Although there was no conclusive evidence of vote-buying in Sunday's primary, Shen said it was because details of vote-buying practices were difficult to trace as they were conducted in a private manner among small member networks.
Shen said the vote-buying reflected the DPP's loss of determination to push for reforms.
Fierce competition
Sunday's primary contained polls to select candidates as regional legislators (with a constituency) and legislators-at-large (without a constituency).
A total of 13 candidates registered in the legislators-at-large primary, vying for the eight safest seats.
Regarding the competition for regional legislative seats, some candidates staged a surprisingly strong showing, such as former vice minister of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission Chuang Suo-han (莊碩漢), who, running for the first time, bested other veteran candidates to garner the highest number of votes in the district of Taipei County.
Competition in Taipei City was fierce with political stars such as legislators Shen Fu-hsiung and Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) finishing sixth in Taipei's south and north districts, respectively. However, those who didn't score well in the primary still have the chance to make up the overall rating in national opinion polls starting at the end of this month.
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
STILL ON THE TABLE: The government is not precluding advanced nuclear power generation if it is proven safer and the nuclear waste issue is solved, the premier said Taiwan is willing to be in step with the world by considering new methods of nuclear energy generation and to discuss alternative approaches to provide more stable power generation and help support industries, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. The government would continue to develop diverse and green energy solutions, which include considering advances in nuclear energy generation, he added. Cho’s remarks echoed President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments in an interview last month, saying the government is not precluding “advanced and newer nuclear power generation” if it is proven to be safer and the issue of nuclear waste is resolved. Lai’s comment had
‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
STANDING TOGETHER: Amid China’s increasingly aggressive activities, nations must join forces in detecting and dealing with incursions, a Taiwanese official said Two senior Philippine officials and one former official yesterday attended the Taiwan International Ocean Forum in Taipei, the first high-level visit since the Philippines in April lifted a ban on such travel to Taiwan. The Ocean Affairs Council hosted the two-day event at the National Taiwan University Hospital International Convention Center. Philippine Navy spokesman Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, Coast Guard spokesman Grand Commodore Jay Tarriela and former Philippine Presidential Communications Office assistant secretary Michel del Rosario participated in the forum. More than 100 officials, experts and entrepreneurs from 15 nations participated in the forum, which included discussions on countering China’s hybrid warfare