Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Secretary-General Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) yesterday refuted accusations from the pan-blue camp that the DPP had influenced the court decision in the pan-blue camp's lawsuit accusing the pan-greens of election fraud.
Chang said that the pan-blue camp's credibility has already been destroyed by its tactics to delay conceding defeat in the presidential election.
"How would the DPP be able to intervene in the court decision? If so, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) would not have had to testify at the Hualien Prosecutors' Office in January about the Hualien County by-election, standing in front of the prosecutor for two hours," Chang said yesterday in response to the lawsuit accusing the pan-green camp of election fraud.
Chang said that the High Court had already declared the re-election of Chen and Vice President Annette Lu (
"The reasons behind the pan-blue camp's fraud allegations were already proved to be untenable when the verdict was delivered on Nov. 4. And we believed that the court will once again make a verdict that sides with justice," Chang said.
The pan-blue camp's accusations of election fraud were based on the fact that the election was held on the same day as the two referendums, which made little sense, Chang said.
"The US held its presidential election along with 163 referendums and California held as many as 16 referendums," Chang said, "The US case showed that it was normal for a democracy to hold referendums in conjunction with general elections."
As for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan's (連戰) accusations that the DPP did not stop the presidential election as soon as it was discovered that Chen and Lu had been injured by shots on March 19, Chang yesterday reminded Lien that it was Lien himself who encouraged voters to vote as schedule despite the shooting incident.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
RSS