As more young people show an interest in public affairs through taking part in public forums and demonstrations, notably the Sunflower movement, the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) yesterday announced that it would provide financial assistance to young people who would like to run for election as borough wardens, hoping to bring new blood into politics.
“Many people have a lot of expectations of the young generation following the Sunflower movement, giving them much support and encouragement,” TSU Secretary-General Lin Chih-chia (林志嘉) told a press conference in Taipei. “The TSU has prepared NT$1 million [US$33,414] hoping to help these young people who have ideas and passion, and who would like to work in politics to fulfill their dreams by lifting some of the pressure of collecting political donations.”
Lin said the TSU also plans to make it routine for the party to sponsor young candidates by creating a fund with the subsidies it receives for the votes it garners as a political party. A political party which wins more than 5 percent of the vote in a legislative election receives a NT$50 subsidy for each vote it gets.
The Formosa Society, a social group founded following the Sunflower movement to promote youth participation in politics, is joining the TSU in the effort. It said the first phase of the campaign would be to encourage people who participated in the Sunflower movement to run for election as borough wardens.
“We want to help 20 young people who are concerned about the future of Taiwan to run for borough wardens as the first step in their political participation,” said Liu Ching-wen (劉敬文), a co-founder of the Formosa Society. “We welcome all young people who support our ideas and would like to run to submit applications via the Internet and we will select the best-qualified ones through the information you provide in the first phase. Then we will have a panel of reviewers... to decide the final candidates.”
The panel is to include Taiwan Bloggers Association chairman Billy Pan (潘建志), Organization of Urban Re-s secretary-general Peng Yang-kai (彭揚凱), animal rights advocate Huang Tai-shan (黃泰山) and social media site Watchout’s spokesperson Lin Tzu-yi (林祖儀).
Applications are being accepted online until midnight on Tuesday next week.
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