Ten 10 independent tickets have been registered for petitions to become presidential and vice presidential candidates in the presidential election next year, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said.
The list unveiled by the commission on Monday shows that, apart from Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) and his running mate, Tammy Lai (賴佩霞), 18 other individuals, including Lan Hsin-chi (藍信祺), who is partnering with the head of the Gong He Party, Chou Ke-chi (周克琦), have registered for the signature drive.
Lan, an ex-convict who served 19 years in prison for a high-profile double homicide he committed in 1981, first registered to run for the presidency in 2011 after his release from jail, but his application was rejected. He again launched a signature drive for a presidential bid in 2015, but was unable to collect enough signatures.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The list also includes Cheng Tzu-tsai (鄭自才), whose running mate is Huang Sheng-feng (黃聖峰). The former is an architect who became notorious after getting involved in a conspiracy in 1970 to assassinate late president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國).
Under the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法), the independent hopefuls must submit at least 289,667 signatures, or 1.5 percent of eligible voters in the previous presidential election, before Nov. 2 to qualify as candidates in the election on Jan. 13. They also must put up a NT$1 million (US$31,248) deposit.
The results of the petitions would be announced by Nov. 14, the CEC said.
If the number of signatures collected by an independent hopeful fails to reach half of the required number, the deposit would not be returned, but it would be handed back if at least 144,834 signatures are received.
Candidates nominated by parties or independent candidates who collect enough signatures to qualify to run are required to register from Nov. 20 to 24.
The presidential candidates nominated by the three major parties are Vice President William Lai (賴清德), who chairs the Democratic Progressive Party, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).
Meanwhile, the CEC said that overseas Taiwanese who want to vote in next year’s election must first register with a household registration office in Taiwan by Dec. 4, in the absence of an absentee voting system.
Overseas Taiwanese who want to vote in the election are required to register by mail with the household registration office where they last registered their address before moving abroad, CEC Chairman Lee Chin-yung (李進勇) said.
They can download and fill out the application form at https://2020.cec.gov.tw and send it to the household registration office, which would review the application and send the result back to them or to a designated person in Taiwan.
Taiwanese living abroad are eligible to vote in the presidential election if they are at least 20 years old, hold a Republic of China passport and previously had their household information registered in Taiwan for at least six months before moving overseas, CEC Vice Chairman Chen Chao-chien (陳朝建) said.
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