The Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) Central Executive Committee yesterday said it will nominate 150 candidates for expected elections to the National Assembly session that will convene in May to amend the Constitution.
"The list of the candidates will include three categories of personalities: People with great social influence, academics familiar with the DPP's ideas of constitutional reform, and those with grassroots support," said incoming DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (
If the National Assembly Representative Election Law passes in the next legislative session, the selection process for delegates to the National Assembly will be changed. A special popular election will be held, with voters casting ballots for the party they support. Every individual party will then send a certain number of delegates to the National Assembly based on the proportion of votes they win. Each party is expected to draw their delegates from a pre-determined list of party members and supporters.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES.
"The DPP takes the ad-hoc National Assembly election very seriously because it will decide whether the DPP's constitutional reform can be carried out," Su said. "The DPP's constitutional approach is clear: reform the legislature and ... the referendum process."
In addition, Su said he will reshuffle the heads of party departments very soon.
DPP deputy secretary-general Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) said at a press conference after the commission's meeting that the party decided to select 150 representatives to the Assembly because there are a total of 300 seats, and Chen won 50.11 percent of the vote in March.
But Chung noted that the DPP typically gains only 40 percent of the vote in most elections, so the party considers the first 120 seats as "safe," while the remaining 30 will be dropped if the DPP fails to win enough votes.
The DPP's first 60 seats will include directors of DPP local and labor divisions, academics and other influential people, he said. The rest of the seats will be allotted according to local population. For example, Taipei County will have 14 candidates, and Taipei City will have 10.
Chung said the 150-strong list will include 50 women and seven Aborigines. Excluded from the list are legislators, city and county councilors, members of the Control Yuan and government officials. The DPP will finalize the list by March 26, Chung said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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