As tomorrow is the deadline for independent presidential candidates to hand over the required 224,000 signatures for the March election, independent presidential candidate Hsu Hsin-liang (許信良) yesterday handed over the first batch of signatures to the Central Election Commission (CEC中選會).
Chu Hui-liang (
"Hsu has already collected more than 300,000 signatures," Chu said today they will hand over another 100,000 signatures and give out the rest of the signatures on the last day. Chu called for more signatures so as to avoid overlapping or duplicating signatures with other candidates.
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES.
According to election regulations, overlapping signatures are nullified for both sides. If too many signatures overlap it could result in a politician losing his or her candidacy.
The Taiwan Independence Party's candidate Cheng Pang-cheng (
An official of the party said the Cheng-Huang ticket has suffered insufficient resources partly because they were the latest to join the election campaign.
The official said pressure from pro-independence party elders, who have called on support for DPP presidential candidate Chen Shui-bian (
While the Cheng camp is worried about insufficient support, an aide to independent presidential candidate James Soong (
The official said they are worried that the exposure of all their signatures may bring trouble to some of their supporters, although they didn't provide any details as to why this was so. The Soong camp yesterday called a meeting to decide how many signatures they should hand over.
In related news, although signature drives are not required for presidential candidates nominated by major parties, the KMT is undertaking a signature drive for its candidate Lien Chan (
"This is a test of mobilization," said KMT spokesman Huang Hwei-chen (
In his National Day Rally speech on Sunday, Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) quoted the Taiwanese song One Small Umbrella (一支小雨傘) to describe his nation’s situation. Wong’s use of such a song shows Singapore’s familiarity with Taiwan’s culture and is a perfect reflection of exchanges between the two nations, Representative to Singapore Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said yesterday in a post on Facebook. Wong quoted the song, saying: “As the rain gets heavier, I will take care of you, and you,” in Mandarin, using it as a metaphor for Singaporeans coming together to face challenges. Other Singaporean politicians have also used Taiwanese songs
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US President Donald Trump on Friday said that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) told him China would not invade Taiwan while Trump is in office. Trump made the remarks in an interview with Fox News, ahead of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. “I will tell you, you know, you have a very similar thing with President Xi of China and Taiwan, but I don’t believe there’s any way it’s going to happen as long as I’m here. We’ll see,” Trump said during an interview on Fox News’ Special Report. “He told me: ‘I will never do
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