People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) yesterday pledged that he would run in the presidential election, following the announcement that the number of signatures for his presidential petition had passed the threshold and reached 355,589.
Standing with running mate Lin Ruey-shiung (林瑞雄) in front of several dozen supporters, Soong vowed to reach beyond bipartisan politics and improve the lives of Taiwanese if elected, saying the signatures reflected expectations for a prosperous society in which people could determine their own future without being manipulated by political parties, while dismissing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) criticism of his presidential bid.
“The signatures could be seen as a black list [by the government] 30 or 50 years ago. Things are better now and [for the government] this is a troublemaking list ... The nation is divided because of partisan confrontations and it is time to let Taiwanese be their own masters. What Taiwanese want is a government that takes care of its people,” he told a press conference held at Taipei City Council.
Photo: Taipei Times
PFP Vice Chairman Chang Chao-hsiung (張昭雄) said the 355,589 signatures in 142 boxes had been delivered to the Central Election Commission’s (CEC) Taipei branch. The PFP would deliver a second batch of signatures to the commission on Saturday, he said.
The first batch of signatures passed the threshold of 257,695 required under the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法), which stipulates that presidential and vice presidential hopefuls gather signatures amounting to 1.5 percent of voters in the previous election.
The commission’s Taipei branch said it would examine the petition forms, before sending them to the CEC for a final review. Soong and Lin would obtain formal candidacies if the petitions pass the reviews, it said.
Soong expressed interest in joining the presidential election and started his petition in September, despite calls from the KMT for pan-blue unity.
Soong and Lin originally pledged not to join the race unless they collected 1 million signatures to prove their popularity, but Soong later said he would enter the race if the petition passed the legal threshold.
The PFP chairman said his aim was not to knock any candidate out of the race, although he said President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had failed to revive the nation’s economy and reduce the unemployment rate.
He also challenged Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to declare Taiwan independent if she is elected in January.
“I am not targeting any specific candidates. Besides, I will have to knock two candidates out of the race to win the election. People are worried about one of them and they are dissatisfied with the other, so let’s knock both of them out of the race and make things right,” Soong said.
Attending the press conference in support of Soong’s bid, former legislator Li Ao (李敖) condemned the government for setting high thresholds for participation in presidential elections and accused Ma of being a dictatorial leader.
“The key to Ma’s problems do not lie in his incompetence, but in his dictatorship,” Li said.
Li and Chang criticized the role of Ma’s top aide, his re-election campaign executive director King Pu-tsung (金溥聰), in the policymaking process and shared their concerns about the future of Taiwan under the “Ma-King mechanism.”
“Under the Ma-King mechanism, King is the decisionmaker and Ma is the terrible executor — a soulless scarecrow — and such a mechanism is dangerous for Taiwan,” Chang said.
At a separate setting yesterday, KMT Culture and Communications Committee Director Chuang Po-chun (莊伯仲) said the party respected Soong’s decision, but that it would continue its efforts to seek KMT-PFP cooperation.
Tsai, meanwhile, said Soong’s entry was a norm and a protected right of any democratic country.
“He will be a respectable and formidable opponent,” she said.
Additional reporting by Chris Wang
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique