Academia Sinica research fellow Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), who had been considering a legislative bid on the New Power Party ticket, yesterday denied claims by New Taipei City Councilor Shen Fa-hui (沈發惠) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that Huang would run for the legislative seat in that city’s Sijhih District (汐止).
“I have never said that I would join the [legislative] race,” Huang said on Facebook. “I will not seek to run in Sijhih and I will do my best to help opposition candidates — including Shen — to defeat [Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)] Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華), so that there can be a good, local lawmaker representing the constituency.”
Huang posted the message in the afternoon after Shen said on Facebook that Huang was “finally going to make his splendid debut” in a legislative election.
Shen said that while he did not feel comfortable with the DPP’s decision not to include Sijhih in its list of constituencies to contest in next year’s legislative elections, he admired what Huang did during Sunflower movement last year and would support him if he decides to run.
“I still have two things to worry about,” Shen said. “First, are local DPP members feeling depressed about being abandoned by their party, and second, are voters upset over an ‘airborne’ candidate who does not know what people want?”
However, Shen said that he has been working hard in Sijhih for 18 years and hinted that Huang might not win the seat if he runs.
Shen called on the DPP’s Campaign Strategy Committee, as well as former premier Yu Shyi-kun (游錫堃)— who is in charge of the party’s campaign in New Taipei City — to be responsible if “the worst-case scenario” arises.
“Maybe everyone will be rejoicing over a victory for [DPP Chairperson] Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), so it would not seem important whether we lose one or two seats in the legislature or win more than 50 percent of the seats,” Shen said. “If we have a regrettable result [in the legislative elections], you will be celebrating a rotation of power, while I will be facing bitter fruit on my own in the dark.”
However, DPP spokesperson Wang Min-sheng (王閔生) said that the Central Executive Committee has decided not to nominate candidates in 11 constituencies, with Sijhih being one of them.
“We will continue to negotiate with the utmost sincerity with the third political force, and I believe our channels of communication with our party members remains smooth,” Wang said.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
RSS