Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday asked voters to support the DPP's call for amending the Constitution, saying the government can launch a new phrase of constitutional reform if the DPP becomes the largest party after year-end elections.
"Taiwan's current Constitution came into effect in 1947," said Lu, explaining that it was designed to encompass all of China, and has become too unwieldy for Taiwan's modern political reality. "It is one of the major reasons why the DPP government has been unable to do its best since it assumed power last May," she said
Lu yesterday campaigned for DPP legislative candidates Lai Chin-lin (賴勁麟), Chen Chao-lung (陳朝龍) and Wang Shu-hui (王淑慧), who are all former members of the National Assembly.
Lu stressed that voters can count on the three candidates to reform the Legislative Yuan because they all subscribe to the party's platform which advocates the abolishment of the National Assembly.
"To implement the ideal of a unicameral system," Lu said, "they joined the movement years ago and had given up their rights as assembly members. So, compared with other political parties, only the DPP candidates can really strive for the promise to downsize the Legislative Yuan and accomplish other constitutional reform."
At a DPP campaign rally last night in Chiayi County, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) again targeted two opposition leaders, KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), saying that even though it has been over 500 days since the transfer of power, the two still refuse to accept the fact that they lost the presidential election.
"One of those two people who lost in the presidential election never undertook any self-examination but only put the blame on his predecessor Lee Teng-hui (
Chen also accused Soong of "fighting for Taiwan's people only with words while using actions when it comes to fighting for his own self-interest."
"He is still telling people that he did not lose the election," Chen said.
"It obviously shows that this person still refuses to recognize Chen Shui-bian as president."
Responding to the KMT's prediction of a landslide victory in the December elections, the DPP yesterday taunted its rival.
"The KMT said that it is now `far' ahead of other parties," DPP Chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said. "I think what the party meant was that it is ahead only in those `far away' areas such as Matzu Island."
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
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