The legislature yesterday confirmed nominations for the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) vice-chairperson and commissioners and for the Central Election Committee (CEC) chairperson, vice chairperson and members.
The FTC vice chairmanship nominee and three commissioner nominees were, respectively, Chiu Yung-ho (邱永和), Yen Ting-tung (顏廷棟), Chang Hung-hao (張宏浩) and Wei Hsing-fang (魏杏芳), while the CEC chairmanship, vice chairmanship and member nominees were Liu Yi-chou (劉義周), Chen Wen-sheng (陳文生), Chang Chiung-ling (張瓊玲) and Liu Chia-wei (劉嘉薇).
All nominees were confirmed with at least 54 votes, which is the simple majority required in the 107-seat legislature — while 106 ballots were handed out yesterday.
FTC nominees Chiu, Yen and Chang Hung-hao received 76 votes, with 28 voting against the latter two and 27 against Chiu, with the rest of the ballots marked invalid. Wei garnered the least votes among the FTC nominees, with 65 votes for, 40 votes against and one invalid vote.
CEC acting chairperson Liu Yi-chou received the highest number of votes at 84. Chen Wen-sheng, Chang Chiung-ling and Liu Chia-wei received 64, 64 and 80 respectively.
The FTC and CEC vacancies are available due to term expirations, former FTC vice chairperson Sun Lih-chyun’s (孫立群) resignation for the position of Executive Yuan spokesperson, and former CEC chairperson Chang Po-ya (張博雅) and CEC member Chang Kui-mei (仉桂美) becoming members of the Control Yuan.
According to regulations, the nominations for the two agencies must be proposed by the premier and approved by the legislature.
While all of the cadidates passed the confirmation process, the three nominees who received conspicuously low numbers of votes — the FTC’s Wei and the CEC’s Chen Wen-sheng and Chang Chung-ling (65, 64, 64 respectively), are also the candidates who the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) objected to.
Wei, whose master’s thesis supervisor was President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), was accused by the DPP of being a Ma lackey.
The DPP is critical of the CEC’s Chen Wen-sheng for working closely with former vice president Lien Chan (連戰) and his coterie and declaring at least 10 properties in assets from 2008 to last year. Chang Chun-ling is a KMT member nominated to be one of the party’s at-large legislators.
Despite her emphasis on its expiration, the controversy over her having US permanent resident status is a concern, the DPP said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
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