Former Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) secretary-general Liu I-te (劉一德) was yesterday elected the new party chairman with 85 votes, defeating Taipei City Councilor Chen Chien-ming (陳建銘), who garnered 56 votes.
The voter turnout for the party’s first chairmanship election in its history was only 26.7 percent.
Upon his election, Liu said that besides continuing to defend Taiwan’s sovereignty, the TSU would also work on the 2018 local elections, with plans to nominate younger and more-likely-to-win candidates for local councils, adding that he hopes the TSU would win at least between 10 and 20 seats in local councils to revive the party.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The TSU won no seats in the Jan. 16 legislative elections, losing the three seats that it had held.
The New Party had only 1.4 percent of legislator-at-large votes in the 2012 election, but the number increased to more than 4 percent this year, Liu said, adding: “I am not so pessimistic about the future of smaller parties in Taiwan.”
Liu said that many young people consider the TSU a party of “uncles,” but he does not plan to serve as party chairman for too long and hopes to give the party leadership to younger people to create a new-generation TSU.
Chen said that there are only a little over 500 people on the TSU’s list of permanent members and about 30 percent of their contact information is invalid, adding that he wanted to have the election suspended.
Liu said he and Chen had previously visited former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), who is considered the TSU’s “spiritual leader,” as the TSU was established in July 2001 after Lee called for a party to give pro-localization voters more choices.
Liu said they visited Lee to discuss whether the election result should be voided when the voter turnout is below 30 percent.
Liu said he supported the idea at the time, and made a motion to be discussed in the TSU central executive committee meeting.
However, many committee members opposed the proposal, saying if there was a threshold, candidates who lag behind might mobilize party members to be absent from voting.
“It would be strange if people who act against principles of democracy have a better opportunity of winning,” Liu said, adding there are no thresholds in other major political parties in Taiwan.
Chiayi City Councilor Tsai Yung-chuan (蔡永泉), who is also a TSU central executive committee member, said that many TSU members are not paying their dues and the party has lost contact with them, so it would be hard to find them, but promised the party would improve.
Chen yesterday said he respected the results of the election.
Chen said that it would be horrible and regrettable if the electoral system causes problems for the TSU’s development and called on the party to expand its supporter base, and be more transparent.
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
RSS