The DPP said yesterday that it will continue to advocate lowering the age of suffrage to 18 from the current 20.
DPP Secretary-General Wu Nai-jen (
Wu asked them to cherish their first voting experience and make wise decisions, stressing that the DPP is "the most popular party with young people, as well as the one that attaches the greatest importance to young people and provides the greatest opportunities for young people to take part in public affairs."
Wu said that the DPP has long advocated lowering the voting age to 18, mainly because an 18-year-old has to shoulder full legal responsibility but must wait until 20 to vote, which he said is incompatible with their rights and obligations.
Juan Chao-hsiung (
Meanwhile, a DPP official said that the party plans to ask its supporters to vote in a proportional way in four cities and counties -- Taipei and Kaohsiung cities, and Nantou and Tainan counties -- to ensure that the maximum number of the party's candidates will be elected in the hotly contested districts.
Shen Fu-hsiung (
Shen and political professor Julian Kuo (
The DPP has used the "vote rationing" method, meaning that the DPP will designate supporters with certain numbers in their IDs or months of birth to cast their ballots for certain DPP candidates, but the method has been criticized as "an affront to the norm of democracy, and an insult to the judgment of the voters."
Shen said that whether the rationing system will help in getting more DPP candidates elected will have to wait for a review after the elections.
Shen stressed that the rationing system is highly risky, but once the decision was made to implement the system, it must be followed through.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
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Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
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