Costumed and shouting slogans, legislative hopefuls came out in force yesterday, the first day of five that they can register as candidates in their voting districts for the year-end legislative elections.
Registration for the sixth legislative elections scheduled for Dec. 11 are being accepted at local-level election committees until Tuesday.
PHOTO: CNA
The lists of nominees for at-large legislative seats and seats representing overseas Chinese are being submitted directly to the Central Election Commission (CEC) by political parties, in accordance with the commission's regulations.
The campaigns began with a bang as many would-be contenders showed up to register in costume, while the New Party's hopefuls formally registered with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
In Taipei City, a five-member Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) team tried to piggyback on the recent Olympic hoopla by wearing fake gold medals.
Calling themselves "gold-medal warriors," the team, including legislators Shen Fu-hsiung (沈富雄), Kuo Cheng-liang (郭正亮), Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) and Lan Mei-chin (藍美津) -- along with Taipei City Councilor Wang Shih-chien (王世堅) -- said they were all confident of victory.
Not to be outdone, People First Party (PFP) candidates Lee Ching-an (
KMT candidate Justine Chou (
Aboriginal DPP candidate Chen Ying (
Meanwhile, lead by New Party Chairman Yok Mu-ming (
The seven are: Taipei City Councilor Alex Fei (
After the seven signed the KMT forms, they, along with Yok and New Party Legislator Wu Cheng-tien (
Lien told the delegation "welcome home."
"We have waited to get these [KMT] legislative recommendations for 12 years [since the New Party was formed by KMT defectors]," Lee Sheng-feng said.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei City Reserve Command yesterday initiated its first-ever 14-day recall of some of the city’s civilian service reservists, who are to undergo additional training on top of refresher courses. The command said that it rented sites in Neihu District (內湖), including the Taipei Tennis Center, for the duration of the camp to optimize tactical positioning and accommodate the size of the battalion of reservists. A battalion is made up of four companies of more than 200 reservists each, it said. Aside from shooting drills at a range in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), the remainder of the training would be at