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.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
IMPORTANT BACKER: China seeks to expel US influence from the Indo-Pacific region and supplant Washington as the global leader, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said China is preparing for war to seize Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said in Washington on Friday, warning that Taiwan’s fall would trigger a regional “domino effect” endangering US security. In a speech titled “Maintaining the Peaceful and Stable Status Quo Across the Taiwan Strait is in Line with the Shared Interests of Taiwan and the United States,” Chiu said Taiwan’s strategic importance is “closely tied” to US interests. Geopolitically, Taiwan sits in a “core position” in the first island chain — an arc stretching from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines, to Borneo, which is shared by
RSS