Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Yu Shyi-kun yesterday said he supported polling only pan-green supporters in the party's primary in a bid to prevent "candidates with pan-blue values" from being nominated.
Yu, one of four contenders vying for the party's nomination for next year's presidential election, said the party's current primary mechanism was problematic.
According to the DPP's primary regulations, 70 percent of a candidate's final "score" in the primary comes from his or her poll rating while party member votes account for the other 30 percent.
"Through [the previous system of] polls, candidates with pan-blue or Chinese values can be easily `delivered,'" Yu said, meaning that the DPP had been exploited as a "surrogate mother" for these "pro-blue" candidates.
"But these `children' will not be so filial to their `mother' and could attack her if they have the opportunity," Yu said when approached by reporters for comments.
"For the sake of the DPP's long-term development and of urging every DPP official and member to stick to the DPP's progressive value, I personally favor employing a poll that excludes `light-blue' and `deep-blue' supporters," he said on the sideline of the party's conference yesterday, adding that he was not accusing any specific individual.
However, he declined to clarify whether such a polling strategy should be applied to the legislative primary, the presidential one, or both.
"I am resolved to establish a system in the DPP despite the many difficulties," he said, emphasizing that he would also like to give more weight to party member votes in the primary.
"I, as the chairman, need to defend the rights of party members," he added.
DPP caucus whip Wang Tuoh (王拓) had criticized Yu on Friday, saying that Yu damaged the DPP's primary negotiations for his personal interests because Yu insisted on highlighting party member votes in the DPP's presidential primary.
In his defense, Yu issued a statement afterwards stating that he was following the party's core values and there was nothing wrong with that.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods