The pan-blue camp's lawyers said yesterday they would appeal to the Supreme Court today regarding a verdict declared by the High Court on Nov. 4, that ruled the re-election of President Chen Shui-bian (
The lawyers said they would file the appeal against Chen and Lu at court today. They plan to hold a press conference afterward to explain why they decided to make the move.
Meanwhile, voters that wish to maintain the status quo and support constitutional reforms should vote for pan-blue camp candidates in the upcoming legislative elections, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
Responding to Chen's campaign speech on Saturday night, Lien called on Chen to clearly identify his position on changes to Taiwan's Constitution in order to give voters a better idea of whom to pick in the Dec. 11 elections.
In his speech on Saturday, Chen identified a number of constitutional reforms he supported, calling for "an end to the use of the Chinese constitutional law in Taiwan." Last night, however, Chen deliberately left open the question of whether he believes Taiwan should completely rewrite its Constitution or merely reform the existing one.
There are many differing opinions in Taiwan about whether to revise Taiwan's Constitution or write a new one, Lien said yesterday.
The KMT, People First Party (PFP), and the New Party support making reforms to the Constitution, in order to tailor the nation's constitutional law to suit Taiwan's current needs, Lien said yesterday while stumping for pan-blue candidate Alex Fei (費鴻泰) in Taipei.
Fei is a New Party member who is running under the KMT banner in Taipei's north voting district.
In contrast, Chen has still not made clear whether he supports rewriting or just reforming the Constitution, Lien said yesterday, adding that such ambiguity is confusing for voters.
"People who support rewriting the Constitution, should vote for that `little party' [the Taiwanese Solidarity Union (TSU)]. Those who support constitutional reform, should vote for KMT, PFP and New Party candidates," Lien said yesterday.
While Chen and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have been unclear about whether they support completely rewriting or just reforming the Constitution, the TSU's spiritual leader, former president Lee Teng-hui (
In a press release issued by the KMT late Saturday night after Chen's speech, KMT spokesman Chang Jung-kung (張榮恭) criticized Chen's call for putting an end to the use of the Chinese Constitution as a misunderstanding of the current situation and a move towards independence for Taiwan.
In the statement, Chang said that the Constitution used by Taiwan was never called the "Chinese Constitution" but is instead the Constitution of the Republic of China.
As a result, Chang warned, Chen's words could be interpreted by China to mean that the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China's constitution includes Taiwan.
Furthermore, said Chang, while Taiwan's people and the KMT do not support the positions held forth in China's constitution, they value the status quo.
Chen's direct call for an end to the use of a Chinese constitution in Taiwan will only derail any chances for cross-strait peace, Chang said.
While on the campaign trial in Taipei County, PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) also criticized Chen's comments, highlighting in particular Chen's call to eliminate the Taiwan Province level of government.
In 1997, the provincial administration was streamlined through constitutional changes.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching