Tue, Jun 05, 2007 page3

• Taiwan Quick Take

  • STAFF WRITER
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  ■ Politics

  DPP reshuffles officials

  The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday announced a reshuffle of senior officials in response to the upcoming presidential campaign. DPP Secretary-General Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the party's two deputy secretaries-general -- Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) and Lin Yi-cheng (林宜正) -- would both step down. Their positions will be filled by Hsu Jen-tu (許仁圖), director of DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh's (謝長廷) southern campaign office, and former director of the DPP's Taichung County district headquarters Fang Sheng-mao (方昇茂), Lin said. Hsu is expected to be responsible for policy coordination and communication between the party and Hsieh's campaign headquarters while Fang is expected to reinforce the DPP's organizational ability.

  ■ Immigration

  Aid for trafficking victims

  The government will devote more financial and human resources to helping nonprofit organizations provide shelter and other social services to human trafficking victims, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) announced last week. Under orders from a Cabinet inter-agency task force on human trafficking and smuggling, the Ministry of the Interior, under which the NIA is a subordinate agency, and the Council of Labor Affairs plan to meet with local-level governments to better understand the living conditions of trafficking victims living in shelters and security at nonprofit organizations offering refuge to them, an NIA press release said. The government will then support these organizations in areas where they presently lack resources or know-how, the release read.

  ■ Politics

  KMT criticizes CEC

  The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus whip slammed the Central Election Commission (CEC) at a press conference yesterday for setting Jan. 12 as the date for the next legislative election. "We suspect the CEC had ulterior motives because it set the date without prior consultation with lawmakers," KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) said. KMT Legislator Justin Chou (周守訓) said legislative elections had always taken place in the first half of December as the CEC needed time to work out its financial accounts before the year ended. "The CEC has to give us an explanation for delaying the election date," Chou said. KMT Legislator Kuo Su-chun (郭素春) alleged that the date had been set at the request of the Democratic Progressive Party because a fortune-teller had said it would win if the elections were held on that day.

  ■ Politics

  Ma denies Lin meeting

  Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday dismissed media speculation that he had met Uni-President Group chief executive officer Jason Lin (林蒼生) on Sunday night to ask him to be his running mate in the presidential election. Ma was responding to a report that appeared in the Chinese-language China Times yesterday, which said he had secretly met Lin in Tainan on Sunday night. "I did not visit [Lin] yesterday [on Sunday]. I was very surprised when I read the report in the newspaper. I went to Tainan and Kaohsiung yesterday [on Sunday] [but] did not visit anyone from Uni-President Group," Ma said in Taipei. "At this point, we are working hard to find the best candidate. We should do more and say less," he said when asked about his choice of a running mate.
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