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
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary