Former premiers Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and Yu Shyi-kun, along with the former New Tide faction, the most powerful grouping in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), came away victorious last night in elections that will shape the party for the next two years.
The two political heavyweights were elected to the 10-person Central Standing Committee (CSC), the party’s top decisionmaking and administrative body. Three members of the New Tide faction — Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康), Yen Hsiao-ching (顏曉菁) and Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) — were also voted onto CSC.
The two former premiers’ “factions” also did well, with Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) of the Hsieh faction and Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) of the Yu faction also elected to the committee.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Biennial elections for new members of the CSC, the Central Executive Committee (CEC) and the Central Review Committee, which oversees the party’s internal affairs, were held at the party’s annual national congress yesterday. The event marked a changing of the guard in the DPP after Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) became party chairman in May.
Thirty Central Executive Committee members were selected from 560 party representatives to make the final nominee list, before the newly elected CEC members cast their votes to elect the CSC members.
The CSC is comprised of 17 members: the 10 elected members — which also included Tsai Hsien-hao (蔡憲浩), Ho Chih-wei (何志偉) and Lee Ching-fu (李清福) — along with seven members designated by the chairperson, three DPP legislative caucus executives and three mayors.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Former DPP legislator Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) failed to win a draw and so lost the opportunity to retain his CSC seat. He had been tied with Wu and Yen, who had two votes each.
The results of the Central Executive Committee election yielded a balanced power-sharing structure between the now disbanded factions, with New Tide winning seven seats, closely followed by Yu’s faction, with six seats, Hsieh’s faction with five and the Su Tseng-chang faction with four. The Green Friendship Alliance and Greater Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu’s (陳菊) faction tied with two seats apiece.
The biggest surprise in the Central Executive Committee election was the loss of Deputy Kaohsiung Mayor Liu Shih-fang (劉世芳), who lost by one vote.
The party posts are the only occasion within the DPP where factions can compete for power, which is why they are vociferously contested and produce rumors of vote-buying and other allegations of cheating.
Most DPP heavyweights, including Hsieh and Yu, played down the rumors, with Hsieh saying that such allegations were made in nearly every DPP election.
Eleven Central Review Committee members were also elected at the annual congress.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
NO CONFIDENCE MOTION? The premier said that being toppled by the legislature for defending the Constitution would be a democratic badge of honor for him Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday announced that the Cabinet would not countersign the amendments to the local revenue-sharing law passed by the Legislative Yuan last month. Cho said the decision not to countersign the amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) was made in accordance with the Constitution. “The decision aims to safeguard our Constitution,” he said. The Constitution stipulates the president shall, in accordance with law, promulgate laws and issue mandates with the countersignature of the head of the Executive Yuan, or with the countersignatures of both the head of the Executive Yuan and ministers or
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
RSS