The preparatory committee of the tentatively-named Nonpartisan Solidarity Union (NSU) was established yesterday, bringing the country a step closer to seeing the formation of a new political party.
Former interior minister Chang Po-ya (
Chang said the establishment of the NSU will effectively offer a "third" or "middle-way" choice for the people of Taiwan, who have long been divided into only two groups -- either "pro-unification blue" or "pro-independence green."
The new party's 40-odd founders include some well-known politicians such as Chang, former Hsinchu mayor Shih Hsin-chung (
The NSU preparatory committee was to file a list of its founders yesterday with the Ministry of the Interior in the first step toward forming the new party, said Chiu Chuang-liang (邱創良), one of the founders.
Tsai Hao (
Tsai said the NSU is expected to flex its muscles in the year-end legislative elections and is determined to win more than 15 seats. The party will name no more than one candidate in each constituency in the elections, in hopes of winning more than 5 percent of the vote, Tsai said.
He added that all 10 members of the alliance will stand for re-election, which should quell speculation that the Democratic Progressive Party is trying to win over the alliance's support in the legislature by offering its members Cabinet positions or seats in the Control Yuan.
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
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