As the campaign for next month's elections heats up, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday appealed to voters with what it called "positive solutions to serious problems in Taiwan" by announcing the 10 bills it vowed to pass into law.
The 10 bills, including the political party law (政黨法), the lobbying bill (遊說法), the administrative zoning law (行政區劃法), the fiscal discipline law (財政紀律法) and the Statute Governing the Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例), will be the KMT caucus' priority, according to the party.
"These 10 bills illustrate that, as the country's biggest oppos-ition party, the KMT does not only criticize the government or ex-pose abuse cases relentlessly, but also works hard to provide positive solutions to the country's problems," KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday, during a press conference to introduce the 10 bills.
Stressing the party's reform efforts, Ma said the political party law and the lobbying bill made a priority of regulating political contributions, lobbying and political parties. The fiscal discipline law, on the other hand, could prevent the government from wasting the country's money or acting corruptly, like he said it was now.
Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) and Taipei county commissioner candidate Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) attended the press conference to promote the administrative zoning law.
There are only two special municipalities in the country: Taipei City and Kaohsiung City. The KMT is promoting the merger of Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung cities and counties, while the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is against the idea.
Upon announcing each of the 10 main bills, Ma put a small pack of Chinese medicine into a big pot, a gesture to symbolize that the bills will work as the medicine for what the party called an "ill Taiwan." The party will continue its campaigning efforts and launch its print-version campaign ads today.
Meanwhile, in an attempted response to the KMT's parade that will be held on Nov. 26 to protest the DPP government's recent scandals, the DPP will launch a nationwide march on Nov. 27 to promote its local-elections campaign and denounce the KMT's accusations.
DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday announced the campaign activity, as decided by the central executive committee.
Fast food chain McDonald's is to raise prices by up to NT$5 on some products at its restaurants across Taiwan, starting on Wednesday next week, the company announced today. The prices of all extra value meals and sharing boxes are to increase by NT$5, while breakfast combos and creamy corn soup would go up by NT$3, the company said in a statement. The price of the main items of those meals, if ordered individually, would remain the same. Meanwhile, the price of a medium-sized lemon iced tea and hot cappuccino would rise by NT$3, extra dipping sauces for chicken nuggets would go up
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