Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday lashed out at party councilors who did not vote along party lines in elections for local council speakers, calling them “a shame to democracy,” while apologizing to the party’s supporters.
“Those [councilors] who sold their votes for money are a shame to democracy,” Tsai said in a message on Facebook. “The results of the local council speaker elections are heartbreaking and regrettable, and I would like to apologize to our supporters for them.”
Tsai said that staying clean is one of the DPP’s core values and therefore anyone who betrays those values for personal gain would hurt the feelings and expectations of its supporters, adding that the party “would not tolerate such behavior.”
Photo: Tsai Wen-chu, Taipei Times
Tsai was referring to several city councilors in Greater Kaohsiung and Greater Tainan who did not follow the party’s direction to vote for its own nominees for speaker and deputy speaker positions, resulting in the DPP’s loss of the speaker’s position in Tainan.
In a press conference at DPP headquarters, party spokesperson Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) said that the five DPP councilors in Tainan and one in Kaohsiung who failed to vote with the party would be referred to the Central Disciplinary Committee.
“The committee might meet tomorrow or on Tuesday next week to handle the cases,” Hsu said. “These councilors will most likely have their party membership revoked.”
In related news, the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) yesterday announced that it has revoked New Taipei City Councilor Chang Chin-ting’s (張晉婷) membership of the party, as she failed to follow the party’s decision to support the DPP nominee for the New Taipei City Council speakership on Thursday.
“There have been rumors that [the KMT] might have paid each city councilor NT$50 million [US$1.57 million] per vote,” TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) told a news conference at the party’s headquarters yesterday. “We hereby would like to call on the judiciary to launch a probe.”
Huang added that the TSU has already revoked Chang’s party membership.
TSU Secretary-General Lin Chi-chia (林志嘉) said that he went to the New Taipei City Council on Thursday morning, where he met with Chang and DPP city councilors Chen Yung-fu (陳永福) and Chen Wen-chih (陳文治), who paired up in the speaker and deputy speaker elections.
“I was there to make sure that Chang would cast her votes for the two and she said there would not be any problem,” Lin said.
After Chen Yung-fu failed to be elected speaker, the TSU and DPP immediately launched a joint investigation and found that it was Chang who did not follow voting directions.
“She has admitted that she did not vote for Chen Yung-fu,” Lin said.
Lin said he communicated with Chang through a third person, because Chang did not respond to his request to speak with her.
“Chairman Huang said that what Chang did is unacceptable and thus we have decided to revoke her party membership,” Lin said. “We actually feel that we have been deceived.”
Separately, New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) denied media speculation that he might have been involved in vote buying over the New Taipei City Council speaker election, urging the judiciary to investigate the situation.
In related news, the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office said it was illegal for DPP councilors to show their ballots before putting them into the ballot box, adding that it would launch an investigation.
DPP spokesperson Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎) slammed the prosecutors for “focusing on the wrong issue,” and urged them to look into the allegations of vote-buying instead.
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