Campaign officials for defeated independent presidential candidate James Soong (
It is still unknown exactly when the party -- which Soong's officials said would be a "democratic and non-Leninist" party -- will be formally established.
But it will prepare to contest National Assembly elections in May if they occur, said Soong's vice presidential running mate Chang Chao-hsiung (張昭雄). Candidates would be chosen by recommendation by core members of Soong's campaign group, the New Taiwanese Service Team (新台灣人服務團隊), said Chang.
The Grand Council of Justices are reportedly set to announce tomorrow that a decision by the National Assembly last year to extend its current term for another two years is unconstitutional. Reports have said such a decision could force elections in May, as had been scheduled before the extension was made.
During a visit to Kinmen to thank his voters there, Soong said he hoped the newly-formed party would be a "political charity group," a volunteer's group serving the people.
He said the party could not be "New Party-ized," that is, drawn along ethnic lines.
"If the party is filled with old faces, I would rather not join," he said.
Soong told reporters on Kinmen that there were three main criteria in forming the party.
"It cannot be an individual's party," he said, adding it would not give the public an impression that it intended to make a grab for the assets and chairmanship of the KMT.
Soong said that during the election, the people who supported him had demonstrated a solidarity among different ethnic groups and regions who had once been indifferent to or disappointed with politics.
"Therefore, if the new party could not extend this, but takes the old path of a Leninist party, it would be meaningless," he said.
Sources said former legislative speaker Liu Sung-fan (
Pro-Soong legislators Chen Cheng-sheng (
Although leadership of the New Party has announced that it would cooperate with the new entity -- some New Party elected representatives said a flood of defectors from their party to Soong's would be "hard to prevent."
New Party legislator Hao Lung-ping (郝龍斌) said yesterday that the party would cooperate with, but not be combined with Soong's party.
According to Chang, the party's chairman will be directly elected by its members. He said an initial meeting would be convened to elect a temporary chairman for the NTPP.
According to sources, Soong will be selected as the acting chairman.
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have declared they survived recall votes to remove them from office today, although official results are still pending as the vote counting continues. Although final tallies from the Central Election Commission (CEC) are still pending, preliminary results indicate that the recall campaigns against all seven KMT lawmakers have fallen short. As of 6:10 pm, Taichung Legislators Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) and Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔), Hsinchu County Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘), Nantou County Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) and New Taipei City Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) had all announced they
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday visited Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), as the chipmaker prepares for volume production of Nvidia’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chips. It was Huang’s third trip to Taiwan this year, indicating that Nvidia’s supply chain is deeply connected to Taiwan. Its partners also include packager Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密) and server makers Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達). “My main purpose is to visit TSMC,” Huang said yesterday. “As you know, we have next-generation architecture called Rubin. Rubin is very advanced. We have now taped out six brand new
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant