New Party Chairman Yok Mu-ming (郁慕明) on Saturday called on party members to support the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in January’s legislative elections to prevent the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) from gaining a legislative majority.
Speaking at a celebration to mark the party’s 22nd founding anniversary, Yok said the New Party would throw its weight behind the KMT and encourage its supporters to vote for the ruling party in the political party portion of the legislative elections.
Under the single-district, two-vote system, voters usually cast one ballot for a district member and another for a political party. Seventy-three of the 113 members of the Legislative Yuan are district members representing special municipalities, counties and cities; six are elected from among Aboriginal communities and 34 seats are allotted to at-large legislators selected by the parties.
In previous elections, the New Party was concerned about the party vote because parties usually receive government subsidies in proportion to the number of votes they win in an election, Yok said.
However, the New Party has decided not to vie for the party vote this time, and would call on its members to support the KMT, he said.
KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), KMT presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) attended the New Party’s anniversary celebrations.
The New Party was founded on Aug. 22, 1993 by members of a KMT faction uphappy with what they saw as then-president and KMT chairman Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) moving the party away from unification with China and his “Taiwanization” of the KMT.
Prominent founding members include former minister of finance Wang Chien-shien and former Environmental Protection Administration director Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康).
Its best showing was in the 1995 legislative elections, when it won 21 of the 164 seats. However, it failed to win any seats in the 2008 and 2012 legislative polls.
Yok said that while the New Party will not vie for the party seats, it would nominate candidates to run for district seats, including in Taipei and Kinmen County.
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
RSS