Legislative by-elections for seats vacated in Taipei and Taichung are to be held on Jan. 26, the Central Election Commission said on Friday.
One election is to be held for the seat representing Taipei’s second electoral district after former legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智) on Nov. 18 gave up his seat to run for Taipei mayor.
Yao finished third in the race, which was part of the nine-in-one elections on Nov. 24.
The other election is to fill the seat representing Taichung’s fifth electoral district vacated by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taichung mayor-elect Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕), who resigned as a legislator on Nov. 20, before being elected as mayor.
Under the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), a by-election has to be held within three months of a legislative seat being vacated when more than one year remains to be served.
The next legislative elections are to be held in January 2020 alongside the presidential election.
Those seeking to run in the by-elections need to register their candidacies from Dec. 10 to 14, the commission said.
The commission did not announce when the elections to fill three other seats that were vacated in Changhua and Kinmen counties, and Tainan are to be held.
The three legislators won the county chief and mayoral races in those areas, but they have yet to quit their legislative posts and do not officially take on their new roles until Dec. 25.
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
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
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.
‘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