Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator-at-large-elect Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) yesterday announced that he is teaming up with KMT Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) to run for legislative speaker and deputy speaker respectively, although Chiang said he would make way for a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) legislator to become deputy speaker if the party is willing to work with the KMT.
The former Kaohsiung mayor announced his bid for speaker after the KMT emerged as the largest party in the legislature following the legislative elections on Saturday. No party holds a majority.
“We know that electing a president is not enough to create a democracy of the people, by the people and for the people. What we need is people-oriented legislation with a lasting legacy, and lawmakers who review bills and budget plans, and oversee the government’s policy execution,” he said.
Photo: Taipei Times
“I thank Johnny for agreeing to work with me for this fight. We hope to resume the Legislative Yuan’s functions to oversee the government, rather than serving merely as a legislative agency of the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] government,” he said.
“However, we are also clear that we cannot fulfill our promises to about 8 million voters who voted for the KMT and the TPP without the two parties forming a united front,” Han said.
“As long as our friends in the TPP are willing to work with us, Legislator Chiang is willing to pass this chance to run for deputy speaker to a TPP legislator, which would facilitate the unity of opposition parties. This is the only way for the DPP to feel the rage of the 60 percent of the voters who did not vote for them,” he said.
TPP legislator-at-large-elect Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) on Facebook reiterated that all speaker candidates should first respond in definitive terms to the appeals for legislative reforms that the TPP presented on Monday.
“We will not negotiate or exchange benefits with any individual candidate in private,” she said.
Asked on Tuesday about being Han’s deputy, TPP legislator-at-large-elect Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said that he has “absolutely no interest” in being deputy speaker.
TPP Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) also said that a Han-Huang Kuo-chang ticket is “hard for him to imagine.”
Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫?), who topped the DPP’s legislator-at-large list, is expected to run for the position again. The DPP has yet to announce who would serve as his deputy or whether it would work with the TPP.
“A DPP-TPP partnership is only possible if the TPP voluntarily comes to us,” DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said on a talk show on Tuesday, adding that Huang Kuo-chang’s demand that the KMT and the DPP respond to the TPP’s appeals was only for show.
According to the Method for Mutual Election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker by Legislators (立法委員互選院長副院長辦法), one-third of the 113-member legislature must be present to form a quorum, and the speaker and deputy speaker must obtain more than half of the votes from the attendees.
If no one gets more than half of the votes in the first round, a second round of votes between the top two candidates would be held, with the person who obtains majority of the votes being elected.
The speaker and deputy speaker could also be re-elected, but more than one-third of all legislators must propose such a motion and more than two-thirds of the attendees must approve the re-election.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
SHARED VALUES: The US, Taiwan and other allies hope to maintain the cross-strait ‘status quo’ to foster regional prosperity and growth, the former US vice president said Former US vice president Mike Pence yesterday vowed to continue to support US-Taiwan relations, and to defend the security and interests of both countries and the free world. At a meeting with President William Lai (賴清德) at the Presidential Office in Taipei, Pence said that the US and Taiwan enjoy strong and continued friendship based on the shared values of freedom, the rule of law and respect for human rights. Such foundations exceed limitations imposed by geography and culture, said Pence, who is visiting Taiwan for the first time. The US and Taiwan have shared interests, and Americans are increasingly concerned about China’s
RSS