Former People First Party (PFP) legislators and supporters yesterday presented a signature drive to show their support for PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), urging him to join the presidential election.
Led by former PFP legislators Kao Chi-ming (高資敏) and Yang Fu-mei (楊富美), the group said a signature drive to support Soong’s presidential bid has collected 1185,760 signatures, and Soong should respond to the passion of his supporters by running against President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
Kao criticized both the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) nomination of Ma, which was confirmed by clapping from central committee members, and the DPP’s nomination of Tsai via polls as inappropriate, and said voters should have more choices in the presidential election.
“The signature drive showed the passion of Mr Soong’s supporters, and we are hoping that Mr Soong can join the presidential election and lead us to a better future,” he said.
Calls for Soong to join the presidential election have emerged after the PFP chairman indicated that he might run for president or join the legislative election to boost the PFP’s morale in the upcoming elections.
The PFP is expected to win at least 10 at-large and constituency legislative seats, and is aiming to start a “Quiet Revolution” ending bipartisan confrontation in the legislature.
On the TVBS (2100全民開講), on Friday evening, PFP legislative candidate Chen Cheng-sheng (陳振盛) said Soong has decided on his running mate. However, he did not elaborate.
Despite emerging support for Soong, however, no PFP officials or legislative candidates, including Chen and former PFP legislator Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄), appeared at the event yesterday.
At a separate setting yesterday, PFP spokesman Wu Kun-yu (吳崑玉) said the PFP was thankful for the support, but said Soong has yet to finalize his decision on whether to join the presidential election.
New Party Chairman Yok Mu-ming (郁慕明), who earlier this week criticized Soong’s presidential bid, saying it damaged pan-blue unity, said Kao should reveal all the names on the signature drive to prove its authenticity.
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
RSS