Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Lin I-hsiung (
The peaceful sit-down protest mainly included opponents of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant under construction in Taipei County.
Lin, who founded the Nuke-4 Referendum Initiative Association, declined to speak to reporters yesterday.
However, a member of the association read out a statement drafted by Lin, in which he said that all parties promised three years ago to halve the number of legislative seats and that a constitutional amendment had been held up in the Legislative Yuan.
"Getting this resolution passed should be as easy as lifting a finger," the statement said.
The demonstrators urged legislators to pass the proposal before the presidential election on March 20 because there was no reason to delay it. They said legislators made and broke promises too easily.
The 10-day demonstration began on a chilly note, with temperatures falling sharply from the 29?C recorded on Sunday.
Demonstrators sat on cushions and had only a blanket to keep them warm.
A cold front will bring temperatures down to 11?C tomorrow, according to the Central Weather Bureau.
The hunger strike is being conducted in 24-hour sessions.
Association executive general Iap Phok-bun (
Iap said that Lin and Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh (
DPP caucus secretary-general Tsai Huang-liang (
"We signed the petition letter to show our resolve. But our colleagues from the People First Party (PFP) were reluctant to cooperate," Tsai said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus leader Liao Feng-te (
"We all respect his [Lin's] prestige. But at this critical moment, it's unnecessary to waste his energy," Liao said.
No KMT or PFP legislators have responded so far to a petition endorsed by both Lin and Lee on Feb. 20, activists said.
The petition demands that the ruling and opposition parties act to halve the number of legislative seats from 225.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
RSS