As the sole candidate for the ruling party's chairmanship by-election, Presidential Office Secretary-General Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) was elected the chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday with a higher-than-expected turnout of 19.73 percent.
There were around 347,000 eligible DPP voters for the chairman by-election.
Vowing to broaden the DPP's appeal, Su said his new job will be to reflect mainstream public opinion.
"The DPP is the only party in Taiwan that has its chairman directly elected by its members," Su said after being elected. "The significance of today's election ... is that party members carried out their democratic rights through the party's democratic mechanism."
Only a democratic party will stick to democratic values and defend them, Su said.
"Only the party which defends democracy can make people become the real master of their nation," He added.
A total of 167 polling stations were set up around the nation from 9am through 4pm, and vote-counting began immediately after the polls closed.
Although President Chen Shui-bian (
Noting that casting ballots is an obligation for every party member, the first lady called for a high turnout to support Su.
For his part, Chang said after casting his ballot that the DPP will continue to seek cooperation among the various political parties for the sake of political stability after the new legislature is inaugurated Feb. 1, which is why, he said, he will not vie for the legislative speakership. Chang is an incoming DPP legislator-at-large.
Su, who has been traveling around the country over the past few weeks to secure votes, said the turnout rate for the previous DPP chairman election in which there was also only one candidate stood at only around 10 percent.
Before the results, Su said he expected the turnout for the election to also be 10 percent, but thought it would be difficult to reach even that target because DPP members have increased by 200,000 over the past four years and the election was held close to the Lunar New Year holiday.
Turnout ended up being almost double his expectations, however.
The election was made necessary after President Chen stepped down from his post as DPP chairman to take responsibility for the worse-than-expected performance of the party in the Dec. 11 legislative elections.
The DPP garnered 89 seats, far less than its target of more than 100 seats in the 225-member legislature.
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
The final batch of 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks purchased from the US arrived at Taipei Port last night and were transported to the Armor Training Command in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), completing the military’s multi-year procurement of 108 of the tanks. Starting at 12:10am today, reporters observed more than a dozen civilian flatbed trailers departing from Taipei Port, each carrying an M1A2T tank covered with black waterproof tarps. Escorted by military vehicles, the convoy traveled via the West Coast Expressway to the Armor Training Command, with police implementing traffic control. The army operates about 1,000 tanks, including CM-11 Brave Tiger
China on Wednesday teased in a video an aircraft carrier that could be its fourth, and the first using nuclear power, while making an allusion to Taiwan and vowing to further build up its islands, as it looks to boost maritime power, secure resources and bolster territorial claims. The video, issued on the eve of the 77th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, featured fictional officers with names that are homophones of three commissioned aircraft carriers, the Liaoning (遼寧), Shandong (山東) and Fujian (福建). Titled Into the Deep, it showed a 19-year-old named “Hejian” (何劍) joining the group, sparking
BIG YEAR: The company said it would also release its A12 chip the same year to keep a ‘reliable stream of new silicon technologies’ flowing to its customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said its newest A13 chip is to enter volume production in 2029 as the chipmaker seeks to hold onto its tech leadership and demand for next-generation chips used in artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance-computing (HPC) and mobile applications. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, also unveiled its A12 chip at its annual technology symposium in Santa Clara, California. The A12 chip, which features TSMC’s super-power-rail technology to provide backside power delivery for AI and HPC applications, is also to enter volume production in 2029, a year after the scheduled release of the A14 chip. The technology moves
RSS