The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) was the biggest winner in yesterday's by-election for Kaohsiung City councilors. However, a mockery was made of the city's electoral politics as Kaohsiung's vote-buying culture proved that it is alive and well with the election of Chu Ting-shan (朱挺珊), who ran in the by-election on behalf of her father, Chu An-hsiung (朱安雄), a former city council speaker who has been convicted of vote-buying.
Three of the TSU's four candidates were elected in yesterday's by-election, which, added to the election of six Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidates, gives the pan-green camp the majority of seats in the Kaohsiung City Council.
Political analysts yesterday said that the TSU's excellent performance was due to its strategy of headhunting former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) councilors with solid grassroots support, as well as the consolidation of the pro-independence vote.
Chuang Chi-ming (
Chiu Kuo-chen (
Cheng Cheng-iok (鄭正煜), executive director of Taiwan Southern Society (南社), said yesterday that the pan-green camp's becoming the majority has presented a critical choice for "swing" politicians who must choose between the pan-green and the pan-blue camp.
"This by-election reveals that Taiwanese identity has become mainstream opinion and started to take root since the presidential election. This tendency will grow and strengthen in the year-end legislative elections and gradually drive out the colonial remnants of the pro-unification China-centric ideology," Cheng said.
However, the by-election yesterday was marred by a return of corrupt political forces, with the election of three candidates with family ties to former councilors convicted of taking NT$5 million bribes from Chu An-hsiung in the election for council speaker.
Three of the nine candidates from the bribe-taking families were elected. They are, in addition to Chu Ting-shan, Tsai Wu-nan (
Chu Ting-shan and Tsai Wu-nan ran independent campaigns, while Chen represented the KMT. All three come from Kaohsiung's 5th electoral district, an older area and a stronghold of Kaohsiung's traditional industries.
Chiu said the success of the three candidates from the bribe-taking families resulted from the special features of the area, where support for candidates comes from traditional grassroots connection networks.
The three candidates from the bribe-taking families nominated by the DPP all failed in yesterday's by-election, reflecting Kaohsiung residents' high expectations for the DPP, which has long claimed to be a beacon of democracy and a pioneer in the country's democratic development.
DPP Deputy Secretary-general Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) yesterday expressed appreciation to Kaohsiung voters, as six of the DPP's 10 candidates were elected -- but said the DPP took note of the voters' not having elected the three DPP candidates with ties to bribe-takers.
The lone Aboriginal seat at stake was won by the DPP's Ateng Ingay (
Cheng said Ateng Ingay's win is historic in Kaohsiung's political arena and that Aboriginal political culture, which is traditionally known for its close ties to the pan-blue camp, has made a breakthrough.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
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