Leaving vacated Aboriginal legislative seats empty denies Aborigines’ representation, campaigners said yesterday, accusing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers of seeking to delay reforms and advocating a wasteful by-election if a KMT Aboriginal legislator is stripped of their seat.
“If reforms are not implemented this term, we will be deprived of a legislator yet again,” said Association for Taiwan Indigenous Peoples’ Policies chairman Oto Micyang Raranges, who is of the Amis people.
Prosecutors have sought to annul the election of KMT Legislator Uliw Qaljupayare amid vote-buying allegations.
If Qaljupayare — a member of the Paiwan people who is also known by his Mandarin name, Chien Tung-ming (簡東明), is stripped of his seat, this would be the third consecutive legislative term for which the number of Aboriginal legislators has fallen below the constitutionally mandated six.
According to Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) guidelines, by-elections for seats vacated by Aboriginal legislators can be held only if two of the three seats composing either of the nation’s two Aboriginal districts are vacated.
The Mountain Aboriginal District and Plains Aboriginal District are the only remaining national multi-member legislative districts, with the top three candidates in each district winning seats.
While Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers have argued to pass reforms to allow “substitution” down the list of candidates if legislators vacate their seats, KMT legislators have called to allow by-elections or delay the implementation of reforms until the next legislative term to avoid unfairly benefiting DPP candidate Walis Perin — a member of the Sediq people who would be awarded the seat vacated by Qaljupayare if substitution were allowed.
Raranges said that the expense of holding a special by-election was unjustifiable given that both Aboriginal districts are “presidential” in size — with any by-election requiring polling stations to be set up across the nation.
Substitution would not benefit any particular political party in the long run, he said.
“Since 1994, there have been seven legislative terms, with 14 potential ‘substitutions’ across the two districts if bribery charges were proven. Based on Central Election Commission data, out of the 14 candidates who would have been awarded vacated seats, nine were KMT candidates, three were People First Party candidates and one was an independent. Only one DPP candidate would have been potentially substituted into a seat,” he said.
The KMT and other pan-blue parties and factions have dominated the Aboriginal districts almost exclusively since they were established as part of constitutional changes in 1994.
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
ENHANCING EFFICIENCY: The apron can accommodate 16 airplanes overnight at Taoyuan airport while work on the third runway continues, the transport minister said A new temporary overnight parking apron at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is to start operating on Friday next week to boost operational efficiency while the third runway is being constructed, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday. The apron — one of the crucial projects in the construction of the third runway — can accommodate 16 aircraft overnight at the nation’s largest international airport, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told reporters while inspecting the new facility yesterday morning. Aside from providing the airport operator with greater flexibility in aircraft parking during the third runway construction,
American climber Alex Honnold is to attempt a free climb of Taipei 101 today at 9am, with traffic closures around the skyscraper. To accommodate the climb attempt and filming, the Taipei Department of Transportation said traffic controls would be enforced around the Taipei 101 area. If weather conditions delay the climb, the restrictions would be pushed back to tomorrow. Traffic controls would be in place today from 7am to 11am around the Taipei 101 area, the department said. Songzhi Road would be fully closed in both directions between Songlian Road and Xinyi Road Sec 5, it said, adding that bidirectional traffic controls would
RSS