Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Chang Sho-wen’s (張碩文) father yesterday canceled his KMT party membership to run in the Yunlin County legislative by-election as an independent.
The move came after the KMT failed to dissuade him from running.
Yunlin Irrigation Association director Chang Hui-yuan (張輝元) said in a written statement that he would run in the by-election as an independent candidate.
PHOTO: LIAO CHEN-HUEI, TAIPEI TIMES
His daughter, Chang Yu-hsiuan (張鈺萱) yesterday completed the withdrawal process on his behalf at the KMT’s Yunlin branch.
In his written statement, Chang Hui-yuan said his decision to leave the party would give the KMT more freedom to finalize its candidate.
“Leaving the KMT is actually a big show of support for the party ... and I believe local supporters’ wisdom will be the final judge on such an unfair judicial system,” he said.
Chang Sho-wen, who won a legislative election in Yunlin County in January last year, lost his seat earlier this month after the High Court found him guilty of participating in a vote-buying scheme organized by his father.
Chang Hui-yuan, who was found guilty of vote buying in the first trial, registered with the KMT to run in the by-election on behalf of his son earlier this month.
The KMT later rejected his registration based on the revised version of its “black-gold exclusion clause,” which states that members who are found guilty of corruption at their first trial are not to be nominated for any election.
KMT Secretary-General Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) talked to Chang Hui-yuan and Chang Sho-wen on Wednesday night, but failed to dissuade Chang Hui-yuan from running.
KMT spokesman Lee Chien-jung (李建榮) yesterday expressed regret over Chang Hui-yuan’s move, but did not say whether the party would skip the primary to nominate the only registered hopeful for the by-election, Wu Wei-chi (吳威志), an associate professor at Yunlin Technology University.
The by-election will be held on Sept. 26.
In related news, the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) said yesterday that the Executive Yuan should consider holding local and legislative elections at the same time to avoid the phenomenon of “phantom voters” following the approval of upgrades and mergers involving two cities and four counties.
The legal code states that a person is eligible to vote in a certain district after being a registered resident in the area for four full months.
TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) said after the upgrades and the mergers have been completed, elections for the local government seats and legislative seats would be held one year apart, which means people could take advantage of the legal loophole to vote in two different districts by simply switching their household registration within the required time.
“In the future, population distribution could vary depending on the election season. Taiwan will become a country of phantom voters,” he said.
Huang said that a responsible government should ensure the fairness and impartiality of its elections and demanded that the Executive Yuan look into the matter.
The problem of “phantom voters” has occurred before, especially in districts where election races are tight. Some candidates mobilize non-residents to build temporary nests in a voting district in an effort to garner more votes, Huang said, giving the example of Keelung, which in 2005 reported negative population growth, but somehow returned to positive growth last month.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
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