A group of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) youth members yesterday called on the party to reserve four of its legislators-at-large seats for disadvantaged and academic representatives as a means of upholding the party's core values.
"The party has to continue with nominations representing the disadvantaged and academics in its legislator-at-large list, simply because we are different from the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT]," said the group, which is composed of DPP legislative aides.
The DPP had decided to cancel the seats it previously reserved for the disadvantaged and academics in this year's legislator-at-large lineup due to the reduction of the size of the legislature from 225 to 113, while the seats reserved for women must be retained as mandated by law.
Nevertheless, DPP regulations empower a nomination commission led by its chairman to select one-third of the members of the party's legislator-at-large list.
"It has been part of the party's core values to take care of disadvantaged people and to hold academic experts in esteem. Politicians should back off from at least four legislator-at-large seats," said group member Kim Lin (林珮菁), basing the number on the assumption that the DPP is expected to secure 12 legislator-at-large seats.
With one-third of seats decided by the nomination commission the DPP's legislator-at-large primary is a competitive race, as 20 DPP politicians have registered to vie for the remaining eight seats.
A series of discussions on the legacy of martial law and authoritarianism are to be held at the Taipei International Book Exhibition this month, featuring findings and analysis by the Transitional Justice Commission. The commission and publisher Book Republic organized the series, entitled “Escaping the Nation’s Labyrinth of Memory: What Authoritarian Symbols and Records Can Tell Us,” to help people navigate narratives through textual analysis and comparisons with other nations. The four-day series is to begin on Thursday next week with a discussion between commission Chairwoman Yang Tsui (楊翠), Polish-language translator Lin Wei-yun (林蔚昀), and Polish author and artist Pawel Gorecki comparing
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