The Central Election Commission (CEC) must nullify the election of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Shao-ting (黃紹庭) today because he is a US citizen, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, panning the commission for not including the issue in today’s CEC meeting agenda.
DPP spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said the CEC had dragged its feet on the issue of Huang’s status in the last two meetings.
“However, when former Taiwan Solidarity Union legislator George Liu (劉寬平) was found to have US citizenship, it took the CEC one meeting to annul the election result and invalidate his election certificate,” said Cheng, adding that the CEC must hold a by-election to fill the vacancy.
The Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office should also investigate whether Huang committed fraud by accepting regular paychecks from the government during his stint in office, Cheng said.
In April, media reports claimed that Huang still had US citizenship, but he denied it, saying he gave up his US passport “a long time ago.”
In May, the American Institute in Taiwan confirmed that Huang relinquished his citizenship last year.
Huang was elected in late 2006. His position as secretary-general of the KMT caucus at the council was suspended following the allegation about his citizenship.
The Nationality Act (國籍法) prohibits government officials from holding dual citizenship and obliges those with a second nationality to renounce it before being sworn in. The Act also requires that they present proof within one year of assuming office that they have renounced their second citizenship.
DPP Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) yesterday said Huang had used his US passport to travel in and out of Taiwan on numerous occasions while serving as a Kaohsiung city councilor.
“There is ample evidence to prove that he has violated the Nationality Act. It all depends on the CEC — if it has the guts to use the evidence against Huang and act like an independent commission, as it was intended to be,” she said.
CEC Secretary-General Teng Tien-yu (鄧天祐) yesterday rebutted the DPP accusation.
“[The DPP’s accusation] is not true — we’ve discussed Huang’s case in two meetings already, and CEC members decided at the meetings to ask Huang about his side of the story,” Teng told the Taipei Times by telephone.
He said Huang’s case would not be discussed at the meeting today because the commission was still waiting for a response from the US government regarding Huang’s citizenship status.
Teng said that following a request by the commission on June 30, Huang authorized the CEC to check his US citizenship status with the US government.
“We issued a request to the US government as soon as we received permission from Huang on July 14,” Teng said. “But we haven’t heard from them yet.”
Teng also denied the DPP allegation that it only took the CEC one meeting to revoke Liu’s status as a lawmaker because Liu held US citizenship during his term as a legislator from 2004 to 2007.
FIREPOWER: On top of the torpedoes, the military would procure Kestrel II anti-tank weapons systems to replace aging license-produced M72 LAW launchers Taiwan is to receive US-made Mark 48 torpedoes and training simulators over the next three years, following delays that hampered the navy’s operational readiness, the Ministry of National Defense’s latest budget proposal showed. The navy next year would acquire four training simulator systems for the torpedoes and take receipt of 14 torpedoes in 2027 and 10 torpedoes in 2028, the ministry said in its budget for the next fiscal year. The torpedoes would almost certainly be utilized in the navy’s two upgraded Chien Lung-class submarines and the indigenously developed Hai Kun, should the attack sub successfully reach operational status. US President Donald Trump
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
RSS