The voting age for Taipei referendums should be lowered to 18, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday.
At a meeting of the city government’s Civil Participation Committee, Ko backed a proposal to ask the Taipei City Council to revise the Referendum Autonomous Articles under consideration, lowering the voting age by two years to 18.
Ko backs voting at 18 because that is the age at which people must shoulder legal responsibility for crimes, he said, expressing incredulity that proposals to lower the voting age had “disappeared” in the fight over potential constitutional amendments.
On being told the municipal change would conflict with the Referendum Act (公民投票法), he said the city should still include it and see whether the national government “dares to remove it.”
Taipei City Councilor Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤), of the Democratic Progressive Party, said she affirmed Ko’s advocacy of the change, but its true importance was symbolic, putting pressure on the national government.
Taipei City Council Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Chen Yung-te (陳永德) said the KMT would oppose Ko’s proposal.
“Who do you think you are to ‘sass’ the national government?” he asked, adding that Ko had failed to justify why 18 was an appropriate age threshold.
People First Party City Councilor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊), who is the lead sponsor of the Referendum Autonomous Articles draft and considered the swing vote of the council’s legislation committee, said Ko’s proposal was “nonsense” and “a waste of time” because it went beyond the scope of the city council’s power.
Seven of the 17 NT$10 million (US$311,604) winning receipts from the November-December uniform invoice lottery remain unclaimed as of today, the Ministry of Finance said, urging winners to redeem their prizes by May 5. The reminder comes ahead of the release of the winning numbers for the January-February lottery tomorrow. Among the unclaimed receipts was one for a NT$173 phone bill in Keelung, while others were for a NT$5,913 purchase at Costco in Taipei's Neihu District (內湖), a NT$49 purchase at a FamilyMart in New Taipei City's Tamsui District (淡水), and a NT$500 purchase at a tea shop in New Taipei City's
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
The New Taipei Metro's Sanyin Line and the eastern extension of the Taipei Metro's Tamsui-Xinyi Line (Red Line) are scheduled to begin operations in June, the National Development Council said today. The Red Line, which terminates at Xiangshan Station, would be connected by the 1.4km extension to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, while the Sanyin Line would link New Taipei City's Tucheng and Yingge stations via Sanxia District (三峽). The council gave the updates at a council meeting reviewing progress on public construction projects for this year. Taiwan's annual public infrastructure budget would remain at NT$800 billion (US$25.08 billion), with NT$97.3
TALENT SCOUTING: The university is investing substantial funds in its future to bring in the kind of researchers that would keep the college internationally competitive National Taiwan University (NTU) plans to invest NT$2 billion (US$62.6 million) to launch two programs aimed at attracting and retaining top research talent, university president Chen Wen-chang (陳文章) said yesterday. The funding would support the “Palm Grove Scholars Project,” which targets academics aged 40 to 55. Up to 20 scholars would be selected, each receiving as much as NT$10 million annually, Chen said. The initiative is designed to attract leading researchers to Taiwan and strengthen NTU’s global competitiveness by fostering a more research-friendly environment and expanding international collaboration, he said. NTU is also introducing a “Hong Hu” chair grant, which would provide Palm
RSS