The new Tainan municipality to be formed late this year from the merger of Tainan City and Tainan County will have a total of six seats in the next Legislative Yuan, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said on Friday.
The number marks an increase of one seat from the combined present total for the two areas.
KAOHSIUNG
In contrast, the number of legislative seats for the merged municipality incorporating Kaohsiung City and County will fall from the combined total of nine to eight.
The number of legislative seats for two other special municipalities to be created late this year — the upgraded Taipei County, which will be called Sinbei City (新北市), and the merged municipality of Taichung City and County — will remain unchanged at 12 and eight respectively.
The commission met on Friday to address the allocation of legislative seats to various constituencies around the country.
The term of the seventh legislature will expire in January 2012.
The country’s election law stipulates that any changes to legislative constituencies must be approved by the legislature and promulgated 20 months before the expiration of a legislative term in order for the changes to be valid in the next polls.
DEADLINE
As four new special municipalities will be formed at the end of this year through upgrades or mergers of existing cities and counties, the CEC must secure legislative approval for its proposal concerning changes to the number of legislative seats and electoral districting in those regions before May 31.
The seat allocation passed by the commission on Friday was based on population information from the end of November.
CEC officials said 10 cities and counties did not need a review of their constituencies — including Hsinchu County, Yilan County and Hsinchu City — because they have only one legislative seat each.
Municipalities, cities and counties that have two or more legislative seats and hope to make changes to districting are required to apply to the CEC for approval.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
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