Putting aside their differences yesterday, lawmakers representing Tainan County and Tainan City demanded their constituencies be merged and upgraded to a special municipality.
They vowed to hold large-scale protests if the government fails to take their calls seriously when working to create the nation's third special municipality.
"Equipped with an airport, a harbor and a science-based industrial park, Tainan County and Tainan City will together make an ideal special municipality," KMT lawmaker Lin Nan-sheng (林南生) told a news conference in the legislature.
Earlier, Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (余政憲) said the government was considering creating a new special municipality by merging Taichung County and Taichung City in an attempt to balance the nation's development.
If the plan is realized, Taichung may keep larger shares of tax revenues and enjoy more autonomy, as the two existing municipalities of Taipei and Kaohsiung do.
DPP lawmaker Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) urged the Cabinet to treat all local governments fairly or more of them will come forward and protest against discriminatory treatment.
Taipei County Commissioner Su Tseng-chang (
To soothe matters, the interior ministry said the matter is still under study and that it has no preference for any specific county or city.
KMT lawmaker Wang Yu-ting (王昱婷) said she suspected the Cabinet has backed down on its resolve to draw the country's administrative districts anew following Su's complaint.
She suggested the government convene a national conference on the issue within a month and consult local governments before finalizing its policies.
TSU lawmaker Chien-lin Whei-jun (
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