About 90 percent of netizens taking part in an informal online vote supported the tearing down of the Taipei Dome after Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) administration aired its most recent security report on the facility, in which it noted five major problems and two solutions.
A Facebook page called “Professor Ko’s New Government’s Progress Bar” yesterday started an informal vote, with choices being: “Tear down the facility as soon as possible,” “Give Farglory Land Development Co (遠雄建設) more time to improve” and “I do not trust the city government’s report.”
The poll limited votes to one per e-mail address and the page’s owner said that the vote was informal and not part of the official Taipei City Government’s i-voting program.
As of 9pm last night, from 6,606 votes, 90.01 percent voted in favor of demolishing the arena, 8.07 percent voted for giving the developer more chances and 1.92 percent voted that they did not have faith in the city government’s report.
Netizens commenting on the poll also suggested different choices, with Danny Shih and a netizen surnamed Chou saying that there should be a choice to remove the commercial sector and office sector from the project.
Ken Liu said that it would be best to listen to the suggestions of netizens, adding that he could not see where the government’s “professionalism” came in.
If the poll had not come from the government, then it is purely for fun, Liu said.
Liz Wang also said there should be more options in the poll, including removing the department store area and changing building companies.
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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