The TSU is poised to expand its legislative power if three KMT legislators -- who might be expelled from the KMT for voting in defiance of party orders during last week's confirmation vote -- decide to defect.
TSU lawmakers confirmed yesterday that they are negotiating with at least three KMT lawmakers, who could very likely be dismissed from the party because they ignored party directives by entering the legislative chamber to cast their votes last Thursday and Friday.
"We will approach whoever shares our political ideology because it will fulfill people's expectations if the political scene is stabilized [through the expansion of the `pan-green' camp]," said Lo Chih-ming (羅志明), a leader of the TSU's legislative caucus.
To achieve that, the KMT is not the only TSU target.
Besides KMT lawmakers Chen Ken-te (陳根德), Lin Pin-kuan (林炳坤) and Lu Shin-ming (呂新民), Lo said that the party was also in touch with independent lawmakers Kao Meng-ting (高孟定) and Hung Chao-nan (洪昭男).
Lo said Chen and Lu are long-term friends of some TSU lawmakers and Hong is known for having a close relationship with TSU chairman Huang Chu-wen (黃主文).
The TSU lawmaker said all three have expressed a willingness to join the TSU's legislative caucus if they were expelled by the KMT, but they would wait until today when the KMT announces its decision.
In a bid to reject eight high-level governmental officials appointed by the president, the KMT barred its legislators from entering the legislative chamber to boycott the vote.
The KMT said that entering the legislative chamber itself was tantamount to breaking party regulations regardless of whether the voters cast a "yes" or "no" ballot.
Ten KMT legislators run the risk of being dismissed by the party because they insisted on voting.
Yao Chia-wen (
Once ridiculed for lacking grit in dealing with members challenging the party's principle, the KMT has decided to demonstrate its resolve to reform this time by resorting to stricter punishment. It is widely believed that at least five out of the 10 will be expelled from the party.
None of the KMT lawmakers named by the TSU acknowledged that they had been in touch with the TSU about possible defection.
But Chen Ken-te told the Taipei Times that he would join any party "who makes the people's interests its top priority."
He said he isn't afraid of facing punishment because his party has gone against the public will, but he added that he thinks he did nothing wrong by exercising his right to vote for qualified candidates.
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
Labor rights groups yesterday called on the Ministry of Labor to protect migrant workers in Taiwan’s fishing industry, days after CNN reported alleged far-ranging abuses in the sector, including deaths and forced work. The ministry must enforce domestic labor protection laws on Taiwan-owned deep-sea fishing vessels, the Coalition for Human Rights for Migrant Fishers told a news conference outside the ministry in Taipei after presenting a petition to officials. CNN on Sunday reported that Taiwanese seafood giant FCF Co, the owners of the US-based Bumble Bee Foods, committed human rights abuses against migrant fishers, citing Indonesian migrant fishers. The alleged abuses included denying