The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday expelled four party members for running for city mayor or county commissioner as independents in the Nov. 24 nine-in-one local elections.
Members of the KMT Party Disciplinary Committee reached a unanimous decision at a meeting in Taipei to expel Chiayi City Council Speaker Hsiao Shu-li (蕭淑麗), former KMT legislator Yang Li-huan (楊麗環), former Taitung County commissioner Kuang Li-chen (鄺麗貞) and former Taipei Labor Department commissioner Su Ying-kuei (蘇盈貴), the party said in a press release.
Hsiao has declared her intention to run for Chiayi mayor as an independent, after the KMT picked former Chiayi mayor Huang Min-hui (黃敏惠) as its candidate, while Yang is to run for Taoyuan mayor as the KMT reiterated its support for its official candidate, KMT Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖).
As for Kuang and Su, they have decided to run as independents against the KMT’s Taitung County commissioner candidate Rao Ching-ling (饒慶鈴) and Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) respectively.
According to KMT regulations, party members whose memberships are revoked or who are expelled cannot return to the party until after the statutory periods of three years and six years respectively. Those allowed to rejoin the KMT have to wait at least a year to sign up for a party primary.
Asked about the KMT’s decision, Hsiao said she does not think that being expelled from the party would affect her electoral prospects, because she believes she could win over the hearts of voters with her well-devised plans for the city.
“Being an independent would only broaden my mind and the road ahead,” Hsiao said, adding that she had submitted her application to withdraw from the party in February.
Su said he does not side with any political camp because he is a citizen and that he belongs only to the people.
Yang said she had declared her decision to quit the party a long time ago, adding that she decided to run for Taoyuan mayor after seeing how people have suffered from the longstanding blue-green feud.
As of press time yesterday, Kuang had no comment.
Additional reporting by Hsieh Wu-hsiung and CNA
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS