The Taipei City Government yesterday announced that it would not issue a permit to pan-blue supporters if they plan to stage a gathering at Ketagalan Boulevard again after the rally at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall plaza legally ends on Saturday.
Following yesterday's weekly municipal meeting, city government Spokesman Wu Yu-sheng (
"I think the Taipei City Government has done its best to find a balanced approach to the pan-blue camp's rally," Wu said. "At present, we are not considering giving permission in the near future to people who want to launch rallies lasting all day or even several days."
Wu added that rallies like the one last Saturday, which had a fixed location and time schedule, might be considered.
When Saturday's massive pan-blue rally at Ketagalan Boulevard ended at 6pm, some of the supporters moved to the nearby Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall plaza and continued voicing their appeals. They built a stage on the plaza, where pan-blue lawmakers took turns in addressing the crowd from Sunday. Members of the public were also allowed to take to the stage to voice their dissatisfaction.
The Taipei Police Bureau yesterday announced that it would step up its presence at the memorial before the end of this week after a student at National Chengchi University, Chen Han-sheng (
Chen had suggested to the crowd that they go home, wait for the result of the ballot recount and stop making noise. He expressed his opinion in English.
Chen, who has bruises and abrasions on his neck and back, yesterday said he has reported the incident to the police and was ready to file a charge of assault and battery against people who had attacked him.
Many residents, companies and schools in the vicinity of the memorial complained about the noise, which they said was seriously disturbing their sleep and work. Complainants said the rally had affected their quality of life, according to Tseng Kun-ti (曾坤地), director of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall management office.
On Monday night, the management office issued a warning to the organizers, stressing that the office would rescind its decision to allow the protest if the noise continued or even turned violent.
Tseng said that the rally at the weekend, which had been proposed by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順), was supposed to be a small-scale gathering of 500 people, who were to stage a sit-in.
Democratic Progressive Party City Councilor Hsu Chia-ching (
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