With its ranks growing, the TSU yesterday moved to form party chapters and to hold an annual national congress.
The TSU currently has about 5,000 permanent members nation-wide and is ready to establish the mechanism of a national congress comprising about 350 representatives who would be mandated on behalf of all party members to execute party affairs.
Meanwhile, the party also amended an internal rule yesterday on the disciplinary function of the its highest decision-making body, the Central Executive Committee.
Under the revisions, if a member is not satisfied with the committee's disciplinary ruling, they could appeal to the party's internal monitoring body, which could veto the committee's decision.
The amendment came as a result of a recent internal squabble in which Legislator Su Yin-kuei (蘇盈貴) accused colleague Lo Chih-ming (羅志明) of illegal lobbying for video arcade owners in Kaohsiung.
The party expelled Su on Monday for allegedly making false accusations against a party member and harming the party's image and solidarity.
TSU Chairman Huang Chu-wen (
"The Su-Lo incident did not affect the party's determination to live up to its ideals and spirit. Our solidarity won't be complete without holding on to our ideals," Huang said.
However, Huang yesterday also expressed his regret for the first time over Su's expulsion, saying he felt sorry for the loss of a talented member.
"I have tried to contact Su in the past few days, but he was always not available. I will try to speak to him in the next few days," Huang said.
The feud also prompted the young and growing party to postpone its second anniversary celebration originally set for tomorrow.
The party member assembly yesterday decided to reschedule the anniversary celebration to Sept. 6 to coincide with a massive campaign calling for rectification of the name of Taiwan.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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