The Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) campaign to hold a referendum on the recovery of the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) stolen assets proceeded to the second stage yesterday after the number of signatures submitted by the party to the Central Election Commission (CEC) passed the legal threshold.
DPP Chairman Yu Shyi-kun urged the public at a news conference to seek "transitional justice" by joining the second phase of the campaign.
According to the Referendum Law (公投法), the signatures of 0.5 percent of the nation's eligible voters, or 83,000 signatures, are needed for a referendum proposal to be established.
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
After passing the threshold, another 830,000 signatures have to be gathered within six months for a referendum to be held. The DPP has set the goal of collecting 1 million signatures in the second stage.
"It has been 60 years since the KMT exploited its power to grab the nation's assets when it was the ruling party," Yu said, adding that although former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and current Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had promised to return the assets to the people, but "Ma has been saying one thing while doing another."
Yu accused Ma of trying to prevent the campaign from completing its first stage by having district household registration offices in Taipei delay the verification process for the signatures the DPP had submitted to the CEC.
"So far we have successfully managed to breach Ma's illegal and unconstitutional blockage [of the campaign]. We will surely be able to garner 1 million signatures [needed for the referendum to be held]," he said.
"We believe it is the people's basic right to hold a referendum," Yu said.
"It is also a human right and a tool that can be used by the people to prevent the legislature from being idle. Ma should not try to stop it," he added.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai