The New Power Party (NPP) yesterday announced its new leadership lineup — a seven-member board of chairpersons that it said could prevent abuse of power and encourage participatory democracy — and vowed to win 10 percent of the at-large vote in January’s legislative elections.
The chairpersons are the party’s three legislative candidates — Academia Sinica researcher Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), musician Freddy Lim (林昶佐) and author/playwright Neil Peng (馮光遠) — Soochow University political science professor Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明), lawyers Huang Hsiu-chen (黃秀禎) and Lin Feng-jeng (林?正) and author Lin Shih-yu (林世煜).
They were elected last week by 427 party members through an online poll, with Huang Kuo-chang topping the poll with a 76.11 percent support rate.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The new board yesterday held its first meeting, during which Huang Kuo-chang was elected NPP executive chairman.
Hsu said the party’s Decision-making Committee would consist of the seven-member board and eight members from the party’s executive and policy committees, which would prevent authoritarian rule by a single chairperson and encourage direct participation of party members.
Traditionally, when in office, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party have had the president also serve as the party’s chairperson, which allows the president to interfere with the legislature by manipulating party affairs and reduces the legislature’s oversight power, Haung Kuo-chang said.
“I would not become a permanent executive chairperson, as elections for the board of chairpersons is to be held after each major national poll or when one-sixth of the party members demand it.” Huang Kuo-chang said.
“There will be another election after the legislative polls next year,” he said.
The NPP’s executive chairperson is to act as the party’s spokesperson, and would not have the power to control the distribution of resources or party administration, he said, adding different policy committees are to be formed along the lines of the Legislative Yuan’s committees.
He said the party plans to announce the rest of its candidates for district legislative seats as well as a slate of at-large candidates by the end of the month.
Participation by non-member voters would be factored in the selection and ranking of the NPP’s at-large candidates, as candidates have to seek mandate by communicating with local constituents about the NPP’s objectives and the priority bills they would push for if elected, before the party conducts an online poll to gauge the various hopefuls’ support rates, Haung Kuo-chang said.
That would provide voters with the opportunity to directly participate in the NPP’s decisionmaking process, he said.
The NPP has a support rate of about 10 percent in Taipei and New Taipei City, which it expects could translate into votes, he said.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
RSS