Dozens of college students yesterday rallied outside National Taiwan University (NTU), calling on the government to provide assistance with transportation so they can return home to vote on Jan. 14, as election day falls in the final week of exams for many students.
Holding signs showing their school names and their home towns, such as: “I study at NTU, I have to go back to Kaohsiung to vote,” “I study at National Chung Cheng University, I have to go back to Hualien to vote” and “I study at NSYSU [National Sun Yat-sen University], I have to go back to Nantou to vote,” students attending universities that are far away from their hometowns protested outside the main NTU campus in Taipei.
National Chung Cheng University is in Chiayi County, while National Sun Yat-sen University is in Greater Kaohisung.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
According to the Election and Recall Act of Public Servants (公職人員選舉罷免法), voters can only cast their ballots at designated polling centers near their registered home addresses, making it difficult for people studying or working away from home to vote.
“Setting Jan. 14 as polling day [for the presidential and legislative elections] is a decision that overlooks the rights of students studying away from their home towns to begin with because it’s the final exam period for most students. Some even have to turn in their semester papers around that date,” said Chen Ting-hao (陳廷豪), a student at National Taipei University of Education’s department of educational management.
Few students would be willing to take their assignments or books home just to vote, he said.
Chiang Yu-hsin (江昱欣), a master’s student at NTU’s Graduate Institute of National Development, said he had to take a final exam on the day before the elections.
“Then, I’ll have to take a late-night train or highway bus back to Kaohsiung so that I can vote the next day,” he said.
“I’m lucky enough to have my final on Jan. 13, some of my friends have their finals on Jan. 14 and they just have to give up their right to vote,” Chiang said.
The students urged the government to provide transportation for students who want to go home to exercise their right to vote and for the Ministry of Education to check if there are any schools that require their students to take their finals or to turn in their papers on polling day.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS