On the day of the inauguration of newly elected city, municipality and county heads, 22 councils across the country also voted to choose speakers and deputy speakers.
While the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) secured the speakers of the Greater Kaohsiung, Yilan County and Chiayi County councils, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) picked up 15, with the remaining four — Hsinchu City, Lienchiang County, Pingtung County and Chiayi City — won by independent councilors.
The Taipei City Council, where the KMT has 28 of the 63 seats and the DPP has 27, is to be presided over by the KMT after the party’s candidate had won by 32 votes to 31 for the DPP’s candidate, while the KMT’s deputy speaker candidate garnered 32 votes to the DPP’s 28.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The New Taipei City Council, which the pan-green camp had expected to win after the DPP threatened to strip the membership of those who did not vote with the party line after 65 years of KMT rule, failed to witness a “color conversion.”
While the DPP has more seats (32) on the New Taipei City Council than the KMT (26), there are seven councilors with no party allegiance and one Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) councilor. With TSU Councilor Chang Chin-ting (張晉婷) and a non-affiliated councilor, Chen Shih-rong (陳世榮), being former DPP members, the pan-green camp had expected to have the upper hand in the ballot.
Two rounds of votes, both resulting in a 33-33 tie, were undertaken, before the council finally drew lots, with luck on the side of KMT council speaker candidate Chiang Ken-huang (蔣根煌).
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The tie, assuming that all of the DPP councilors toed the party line, indicated that one of the two non-DPP pan-green councilors had not voted as expected.
Chang was rumored to have been the culprit, speculation echoed by DPP Legislator Wu Ping-jui (吳秉叡) and DPP Councilor Liao Hsiao-ching (廖筱清), who directly attributed the loss to the TSU.
The TSU later released a statement saying that the TSU and the DPP had reached a consensus before the vote that the two parties would work together and require their respective party members to toe the party line.
“Following rumors that some [councilors] failed to vote in accordance with party policy, the TSU is to immediately initiate an investigation with the DPP to identify the councilors who breached the agreement and punish them by revoking their party membership,” it said.
Fuming over the outcome of the Tainan City Council vote, the DPP also announced that those who had failed to vote for the party’s own candidates would be severely punished.
To many people’s surprise, the Tainan City Council, where the DPP has a 29-16 advantage over the KMT in terms of seats, selected KMT Councilor Lee Chuan-chiao (李全教) as council speaker, after Lee secured 29 votes to DPP councilor Lai Mei-hui’s (賴美惠) 26.
The DPP said it had expected at least 31 votes, so at least five councilors had not voted as agreed.
DPP Central Review Committee chairman Liu Shih-fang (劉世芳) said that as the party had required all party members to “show their ballots” before putting them in the ballot box as a way to demonstrate their adherence to the party line, “those who failed to do so are seen as the ones who had voted against the party’s candidate and they will face disciplinary action.”
While failing to achieve the expected wins in New Taipei City and Greater Tainan, the DPP did make gains in Greater Kaohsiung and Yilan County, where the party had its speaker candidates elected for the first time in history.
Police installed six surveillance cameras in the Kaohsiung council chamber to monitor the vote and said that those exposing their ballots would be investigated.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2