The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus yesterday said that it is planning to amend the Law on Local Government Systems (
Wu was convicted of corruption by the High Court but has appealed the ruling. He has also been charged with vote-buying but is out on NT$1 million (US$29,800) bail.
Although Wu was yesterday suspended from his post in accordance with the law, he can still run in a by-election by resigning and retaking the oath of office if re-elected.
DPP caucus whip William Lai (
"We have told the Taitung electorate that Wu would be suspended from his post if elected," he said. "Now they should know it was a waste of their time and ballots to support Wu in the first place."
Lai said Wu has the right to resign from his position after taking office and the right to run in the by-election, as well as to assume office if elected.
Wu, however, would still be dismissed from his position if convicted by the Supreme Court.
Knowing that he would be immediately suspended from his post after assuming office, Wu divorced his wife Kuang Li-chen (
Wu appointed Kuang before Minister of the Council of Indigenous Peoples Walis Pelin, who administered his swearing in, could stop him.
However, Pelin said immediately that Wu's suspension was effective directly upon his being sworn in to office and that he therefore did not have the right to name any deputies.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
"I think it would be a better idea if they let him depart with dignity," Wang said. "He is, after all, a popularly elected official."
Vice Interior Minister Chang Wen-ying (
Secretary-General of the Taitung County Government Lai Shun-hsien (
In other related news, a by-election to vote on a Chiayi City lawmaker is scheduled for March 11 next year, the Central Election Commission announced yesterday.
The vacancy was left by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Huang Ming-hui (黃敏惠), who was elected Chiayi mayor in the Dec. 3 elections.
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