The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is planning a diverse roster of legislator-at-large nominations, including representatives from the business, legal and environmental sectors, officials close to the negotiations said.
The roster, which will contain up to 34 names, is expected to be unveiled on Wednesday, but so far the task force compiling the list has maintained the utmost secrecy, fearing that it could provoke DPP factions and lead to protests by those left out.
Party officials said that even senior aides and secretaries were asked to leave closed-door negotiations on the roster that have been chaired by DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) over the past month. Party directors are also unwilling to attend the meetings over fears they could be accused of leaking information.
While no names have been confirmed, notwithstanding a partial leak last week that was hotly disputed by party officials, there is indication that the DPP could go with a half-half approach of seasoned politicians and experts and academics in various fields.
A source familiar with the -negotiations said Yu Mei-nu (尤美女), a lawyer and women’s rights advocate, human rights advocate Wellington Koo (顧立雄) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), an advocate for the disabled and tax reform, were all in “advanced stages” of the discussions.
There is also talk of possibly nominating a senior member of the business community, preferably a woman, to garner more undecided voters — although that nomination and others will only be settled in the final meeting tomorrow.
The DPP is leaning toward nominating a number of sitting lawmakers, including environmental advocate Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇), women’s rights campaigner Huang Sue-ying (黃淑英) and Chen Chieh-ju (陳節如), a speaker for the disabled, said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity citing the sensitivity of the negotiations.
DPP Legislator Yu Tien (余天) has also not been struck off the roster proposal list, Tsai confirmed yesterday, answering concerns by supporters of the popular folk singer that he would not be asked to run next year.
Party spokesperson Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), DPP international affairs director Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and DPP caucus chief Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) are also considered to be shoo-in candidates, although it remains to be seen how the roster will be ranked.
It is understood that the nomination task force will discuss tomorrow the three former premiers that were last week appointed to senior roles on Tsai’s presidential campaign team, Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and Yu Shyi-kun (游錫堃), and whether they should be appointed on the fringes of the list to drive up the party vote.
Several of their supporters within the party have called on the three former premiers, and especially Su, to be prioritized to a “safer part” of the roster amid continued talk that Tsai’s former campaign rival could possibly take a DPP leadership role in the legislature.
Current survey projections suggest that the DPP could possibly win 17 legislative seats — split between male and female — next year, half the total number of 34 legislators-at-large. In 2008, the DPP won 14 with 40.7 percent of the party vote, while the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) took the remaining 20 with 55.9 percent.
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
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
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