The People First Party (PFP) caucus yesterday questioned the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) sincerity toward a merger plan after instances of the KMT campaigning for members who failed to win the party's nomination.
The PFP and the KMT had previously agreed to nominate a fixed number of candidates in each constituency to prevent the pan-blue vote from being split in next month's legislative elections.
Referring to the agreement, PFP caucus spokesperson Liu Wen-hsiung (
Liu noted that Chiang Fang Chih-yi (
Although Chen had failed to secure the party's nomination in the Kinmen constituency, he had expressed a strong desire to run and the KMT said that the party would not prevent him from doing so.
"We felt like our hearts had been pierced by knives, which also led us to doubt the KMT's sincerity over the merger," Liu said at a press conference held to address the issue.
Pointing out that the KMT had not expelled Chen and Chao Erh-chung (
If that happened, Tsai said, it would "raise the KMT's bargaining power in deliberating the merger."
Chao is running for a legislative seat in the Matsu constituency.
"Despite the tacit understanding between the PFP and the KMT to nominate a fixed number of candidates in each constituency, the KMT did not take action to address its members' defiance of party discipline and insistence on running in the election," Liu said.
"I wonder whether a similar scenario will also soon take place in Matzu or Hualien?" Liu said.
Liu said the KMT and the PFP did not have to engage in fratricidal infighting.
Stating that the year-end legislative elections are the pan-blue camp's last opportunity, Liu called on the KMT to attach importance to the tacit understanding in the joint nomination strategy.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling