The New Power Party (NPP) yesterday said it would push for amendments to the Referendum Act (公民投票法) to allow the public to vote on changing the Constitution and national territory, which it said are “the most important issues the public should be able to decide in a direct democracy.”
With the new legislative session set to begin on Friday, the NPP said that its priorities include amending the Referendum Act and the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例).
The party had proposed the same amendments in December last year, but they were vetoed by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Photo: CNA
Asked to comment on the DPP’s previous response, NPP Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said: “Why was the DPP brave enough to call for a referendum that would turn Taiwan into a normal nation when it was an opposition party, but abandoned the idea when it became the ruling party? By refusing to back the amendments, it ignored the most important issues people should be able to decide in a direct democracy, what the Referendum Act still owes the people.”
Whether people should be allowed to vote on the Constitution and national territory has been a subject of debate for more than 20 years, he said, adding that he hopes the DPP “would not make the same mistake again.”
The NPP will also promote amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area that would strip Chinese residency cardholders of their household registration in Taiwan, NPP caucus whip Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said.
With more than 20,000 Taiwanese reportedly having applied for the card, the NPP would propose that they be allowed to keep their household registration if they cancel their card within a certain period, he said, adding that is likely to be two months.
Asked if the party would back a KMT proposal to abolish the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice (促進轉型正義條例) following a scandal involving the Transitional Justice Commission last week, Hsu said the party would oppose it, but that it supports a personnel reshuffle at the commission and the promotion of a lustration law.
Commission Chairman Huang Huang-hsiung (黃煌雄) is “incompetent” and must be removed from his position, Huang Kuo-chang said.
Instead of thinking about what he could have done better, he simply said he has not had time to read internal documents, Huang Kuo-chang said.
When asked about the scandal, Huang Huang-hsiung on Monday said that he had not had a chance to read most of the official documents until the middle of July and that it was not until last month that work finally got on track at the commission, which was founded in May.
Chang Tien-chin (張天欽) resigned on Wednesday last week as commission deputy chairman after the Chinese-language Mirror Media magazine published a transcript of a commission meeting on Aug. 24, in which he proposed promoting a lustration law to influence public opinion about KMT New Taipei City mayoral candidate Hou You-yi (侯友宜).
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS