The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Central Standing Committee yesterday settled on President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) as the next party chairman.
Presidential Office Secretary-General Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭), who presided over the meeting, told reporters that the committee agreed unanimously to urge the president to double as party chairman.
Yeh said the party would hold an extraordinary Central Executive Committee meeting tomorrow to make the nomination official.
DPP Secretary-General Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the party had made its stance clear, adding it was inconceivable that the president would reject the nomination.
Chen, who resigned as party chairman on Dec. 15, 2004, after the party's defeat in the 2004 legislative elections, was urged to take the helm once more after chairman Yu Shyi-kun quit late on Monday night.
Yu had initially offered to resign after being indicted on Sept. 21 for allegedly misusing his special allowance fund, but said on Monday his disappointment at the party's moderate "Normal Country" Resolution was his reason for stepping down. The resolution was passed by the party's national congress on Sunday.
DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said last week that holding a by-election would be an unnecessary burden, given that Yu's term was almost finished.
DPP policy states that its presidential candidate automatically becomes party chairman if he or she wins the presidency. The chairman's term then ends when the presidential term expires.
Yu was elected chairman in a by-election held in January last year. The election was necessary because former chairman Su Tseng-chang (
Chen's presidential term ends on May 19 next year.
Earlier yesterday, a joint statement endorsed by 25 DPP chapter directors was submitted to Lin, expressing their view that the president should lead the party.
When approached by reporters before yesterday's committee meeting, Yeh said the statement reflected the opinion of the DPP's grassroots supporters.
"We have to admit that we are facing a problem. That is, the legislative and presidential elections are approaching," she said, describing the president as the "glue" to keep the party united.
In a related development, the committee also decided to establish a task force to push amendments to the Referendum Law (公投法).
The law stipulates that a referendum proposal requires the signatures of 83,000 people, or 0.5 percent of eligible voters, to be passed.
The signatures of 830,000 people, or 5 percent of eligible voters, are needed for a referendum to be held.
Lin said the party hopes to lower the two signature thresholds, adding that the upcoming elections have made such amendments possible. He made the remark after meeting Iap Phok-bun (
At a separate setting yesterday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (
Additional reporting by Mo Yan-chih
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
MORE RESPONSIBILITY: Draftees would be expected to fight alongside professional soldiers, likely requiring the transformation of some training brigades into combat units The armed forces are to start incorporating new conscripts into combined arms brigades this year to enhance combat readiness, the Executive Yuan’s latest policy report said. The new policy would affect Taiwanese men entering the military for their compulsory service, which was extended to one year under reforms by then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in 2022. The conscripts would be trained to operate machine guns, uncrewed aerial vehicles, anti-tank guided missile launchers and Stinger air defense systems, the report said, adding that the basic training would be lengthened to eight weeks. After basic training, conscripts would be sorted into infantry battalions that would take
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
RSS