The New Power Party (NPP) yesterday announced that it would not nominate a candidate for next year’s presidential election.
The decision was reached by the party’s decisionmaking committee at a meeting earlier yesterday, NPP Secretary-General Wu Pei-yun (吳佩芸) told a news conference at party headquarters.
In the meeting, the committee also decided that the party’s priority in the upcoming general elections would be to maximize its legislative seats and to create a legislature that truly represents the public’s voice, she said.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Last week, the party issued a statement that it is drafting presidential nomination regulations and that it would prioritize enlisting NPP caucus whip Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) for the election.
The statement drew strong criticism from a number of decisionmaking committee members, who accused party headquarters of ignoring them in the decisionmaking process.
One of the committee members, Miaoli County Councilor Tseng Wen-hsueh (曾玟學), said that whether the party nominates a presidential candidate should first be discussed by the committee.
Meanwhile, Huang denied having any interest in running for president next year.
Asked to explain the shift from considering drafting Huang to not nominating any presidential candidate, Wu yesterday said that the NPP must be responsible to its supporters.
In the 2016 general elections, the NPP received 740,000, or 6.1 percent, of party votes, earning it the option of nominating its own candidate in the next presidential election, she said.
The votes meant that voters placed great hopes on the NPP, which must respond to such expectations, she added.
Asked who the NPP would support in the presidential election, Wu said that the party would discuss the issue at its national convention.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
‘SAME OLD TRICK’: Even if Beijing resumes individual travel to Taiwan, it would only benefit Chinese tourism companies, the Economic Democracy Union convener said China’s 10 new “incentives” are “sugar-coated poison,” an official said yesterday, adding that Taiwanese businesses see them clearly for what they are, but that Beijing would inevitably find some local collaborators to try to drums up support. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, made the remark ahead of a news conference the General Chamber of Commerce is to hold today. The event, titled “Industry Perspectives on China’s Recent Pro-Taiwan Policies,” is expected to include representatives from industry associations — such as those in travel, hotels, food and agriculture — to request the government cooperate with China’s new measures, people familiar with
RSS