The legislative election resulted in none of the smaller parties winning a legislator-at-large seat, which could be harmful to Taiwan's environmental awareness, members of the Green Party Taiwan (GPT) said.
The party received a mere 0.6 percent of votes.
"Taiwan's political polarization between the two main parties squeezes out smaller parties," said former policy advisor to the president Peter Ng (
However, environmentalists and political analysts said that although amid the political mud slinging important topics like environmental protection are largely neglected, there are signs that these issues are receiving increasing public attention.
One reason for the GPT's disappointing performance was its relatively recent formation, analysts said.
metropolitan
"The GPT is a `metropolitan party' -- while its ideology is impressive, it is only supported by people in cities," Academia Sinica political scientist Lin Jih-wen (林繼文) said.
Liao Da-chi (廖達琪), a National Sun Yat-sen University political science professor, said that, "the GPT appeals mostly to young people; however that group may have low levels of voter participation."
But despite the current situation environmentalists did not think the outlook for GPT and other "small parties with a mission and passion" was bleak.
GPT secretary-general Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) said the fact that many people asked for the party's campaign flyers showed that fighting climate change and saving the environment were receiving increasing attention.
starting small
"While it is true that the GPT is a `city party,' one must bear in mind that all alternative parties -- including the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) -- started in cities with small groups of supporters," Ng said.
Ng said that while he was not worried by the GPT's fate, since parties took time to mature and be accepted, it was worrying that the KMT had won by such a big margin.
System reform may be necessary to remove institutional barriers for small parties to enter the legislature and widen the nation's narrow political spectrum, he said.
"The 5 percent benchmark is high for starting parties; the 60,000 people who voted for the GPT had their votes unfairly represented, unlike, say, Aboriginal voters or those in smaller counties like Kinmen, which has fewer than 30,000 voters," he said.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called for greater cooperation between Taiwan, Lithuania and the EU to counter threats to information security, including attacks on undersea cables and other critical infrastructure. In a speech at Vilnius University in the Lithuanian capital, Tsai highlighted recent incidents in which vital undersea cables — essential for cross-border data transmission — were severed in the Taiwan Strait and the Baltic Sea over the past year. Taiwanese authorities suspect Chinese sabotage in the incidents near Taiwan’s waters, while EU leaders have said Russia is the likely culprit behind similar breaches in the Baltic. “Taiwan and our European
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
RSS