Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) yesterday accused President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of using pro-green media outlets to attack the KMT for election purposes, daring Chen to hold a debate with him on TV in his capacity as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman.
"Chen Shui-bian has promoted the DPP and attacked the KMT on TV during one-hour and two-hour interviews as president," Wu said yesterday after attending an exhibition of photos and artifacts related to former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) at the Chang Yung-fa Foundation.
"What kind of president, who can get whatever interviews he wants, spares no effort to promote a particular party while suppressing another?" he said.
Wu said that Formosa TV had invited him for an interview after broadcasting an interview with Chen on Tuesday, but then canceled it two hours later, suggesting the station had canceled his interview "under certain pressure."
Arguing that the KMT is facing an "unfair election," Wu invited Chen to hold a televised debate with him in his capacity as DPP chairman rather than in his capacity as president.
Wu accused Chen and the Central Election Commission (CEC) of intending to create chaos during Saturday's legislative elections and was concerned over the possibility of ballot recounts on the day.
Because the CEC will allow ballots cast into the wrong boxes to be counted, there could be valid ballots coming from other boxes after the results are announced, which could result in ballot recount requests in districts with small winning margins, Wu said.
The KMT says there are more than 10 districts where the KMT and DPP candidates are neck and neck and those districts may require recounts.
In order to prevent disputes on election day, the KMT has set up response centers in eight cities and counties governed by the pan-green camp.
Formed by lawyers, civil servants and legislators, the centers will provide legal counseling services and other support if candidates require a ballot recount, said Liao Fung-te (廖風德), the head of the KMT's organization and development committee.
Meanwhile, in response to Chen's claim that if the KMT seized two-thirds of the legislative seats, DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) would be impeached by the legislature if he became president, KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said the legislature would only impeach a corrupt president.
"President Chen made those comments because of his own experiences. The legislature tried to impeach him as a result of his corruption. I don't think future presidents will face that situation," Ma said.
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
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
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