The DPP Central Review Com-mittee yesterday decided to expel Legislator-at-large Chiu Chang (邱彰) from the party for allegedly spoiling her ballot in the legislative vice-speakership race on Feb. 1.
The party alleges that Chiu refused to show her ballot during the election, breaking a party resolution that required members to show how they voted. Chiu's refusal cast doubt on whether she had voted for the DPP candidate.
TAIPEI TIMES FILE PHOTO
In response to the committee's decision, Chiu's voting witness Wang Sing-nan (王幸男), also a DPP lawmaker, said the decision was based on personal feuds within the party and reiterated that Chiu really did vote for the party's candidate, Hong Chi-chang (洪奇昌).
Chiu was quoted by the Central News Agency as vowing to appeal the decision to the party's Arbitration Committee.
But Chiu told the Taipei Times yesterday that she would respond to the decision in a press conference scheduled for this morning.
The Central Review Committee's ten members met yesterday for a second time to discuss disciplinary measures for Chiu.
Among the three actions the party could have taken -- warning, suspending party membership and expulsion from the party -- eight out of the 10 members voted to oust her.
The eight members who voted to expel Chiu were Lee Chun-yee (
KMT candidate Chiang Ping-kun (江丙坤) won the Feb. 1 election for vice speaker over DPP candidate Hong by nine votes in a second round of voting after neither secured a majority in the initial round.
Three of the four invalid ballots from the first round are suspected to have been spoiled by DPP lawmakers. But the DPP has never been able to prove that Chiu really spoiled her ballot.
Chiu was accused during the last legislative session by former party caucus whips of violating party discipline by refusing to show her ballot to the DPP's voting witness and also for shouting on the legislative floor.
Although the party has no proof Chiu spoiled her ballot, the committee's decision was nevertheless applauded by former legislative whip Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯).
"Since she refused to show her ballot to the party's witness and there were four spoiled ballots, we have reason to suspect that she cast an invalid vote by deliberately spoiling her ballot. As every faction of the party has its representative present in the committee, how can anyone suggest the decision was based on electoral feuding? If everyone behaved like her, how would you expect the party to impose discipline on its members?" Tsai said.
If Chiu fails in an appeal, her legislator-at-large seat would be filled by former lawmaker Lin Wen-lang (
COLLABORATION: As TSMC is building an advanced wafer fab in Dresden, Germany, it needs to build a comprehensive supply chain in Europe, Joseph Wu said Taiwan is planning to team up with the Czech Republic to build a semiconductor cluster in the European country, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said on Friday. Wu, who led a Taiwanese delegation at the annual GLOBSEC Forum held in Prague from Friday to today, said in a news conference that Taiwan seeks to foster cooperation between Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) and its counterparts in Czechia. Such cooperation is expected to transform the country into one of the most important semiconductor clusters in Europe over the next three to five years, he added. As TSMC is building an advanced
A joint declaration by Pacific leaders was reissued yesterday morning with mentions of Taiwan removed after China slammed an earlier version as a “mistake” that “must be corrected.” After five days of talks in Tonga, a “cleared” communique was released on Friday that reaffirmed a 30-year-old agreement allowing Taiwan to take part in the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF). However, the wording immediately raised the ire of Chinese diplomats, who piled pressure on Pacific leaders to amend the document. The forum reissued the communique without explanation yesterday morning, conspicuously deleting the paragraph concerning the bloc’s “relations with Taiwan.” “It must be a
A tropical depression in waters east of the Philippines could develop into a tropical storm as soon as today and bring rainfall as it approaches, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, while issuing heat warnings for 14 cities and counties. Weather model simulations show that there are still considerable differences in the path that the tropical depression is projected to take. It might pass through the Bashi Channel to the South China Sea or turn northeast and move toward the sea south of Japan, CWA forecaster Yeh Chih-chun (葉致均) said, adding that the uncertainty of its movement is still high,
TAIWANESE INNOVATION: The ‘Seawool’ fabric generates about NT$200m a year, with the bulk of it sourced by clothing brands operating in Europe and the US Growing up on Taiwan’s west coast where mollusk farming is popular, Eddie Wang saw discarded oyster shells transformed from waste to function — a memory that inspired him to create a unique and environmentally friendly fabric called “Seawool.” Wang remembered that residents of his seaside hometown of Yunlin County used discarded oyster shells that littered the streets during the harvest as insulation for their homes. “They burned the shells and painted the residue on the walls. The houses then became warm in the winter and cool in the summer,” the 42-year-old said at his factory in Tainan. “So I was
RSS