The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus yesterday said that it is planning to amend the Law on Local Government Systems (
Wu was convicted of corruption by the High Court but has appealed the ruling. He has also been charged with vote-buying but is out on NT$1 million (US$29,800) bail.
Although Wu was yesterday suspended from his post in accordance with the law, he can still run in a by-election by resigning and retaking the oath of office if re-elected.
DPP caucus whip William Lai (
"We have told the Taitung electorate that Wu would be suspended from his post if elected," he said. "Now they should know it was a waste of their time and ballots to support Wu in the first place."
Lai said Wu has the right to resign from his position after taking office and the right to run in the by-election, as well as to assume office if elected.
Wu, however, would still be dismissed from his position if convicted by the Supreme Court.
Knowing that he would be immediately suspended from his post after assuming office, Wu divorced his wife Kuang Li-chen (
Wu appointed Kuang before Minister of the Council of Indigenous Peoples Walis Pelin, who administered his swearing in, could stop him.
However, Pelin said immediately that Wu's suspension was effective directly upon his being sworn in to office and that he therefore did not have the right to name any deputies.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
"I think it would be a better idea if they let him depart with dignity," Wang said. "He is, after all, a popularly elected official."
Vice Interior Minister Chang Wen-ying (
Secretary-General of the Taitung County Government Lai Shun-hsien (
In other related news, a by-election to vote on a Chiayi City lawmaker is scheduled for March 11 next year, the Central Election Commission announced yesterday.
The vacancy was left by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Huang Ming-hui (黃敏惠), who was elected Chiayi mayor in the Dec. 3 elections.
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
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
RSS