The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) leadership for the next two years took shape yesterday during elections at the annual congress as DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) gained an ability to influence the party’s power structure for the first time.
Tsai, who neither established her own alliance nor became affiliated with any grouping when she served as chairperson between 2008 and 2012, yesterday saw allies voted onto the party’s key decisionmaking bodies — the Central Executive Committee and the Central Standing Committee.
While Tsai has been reluctant to recognize her “special circle” as a faction, she now has five allies among the 30 elected members of the Central Executive Committee and two confidants — DPP Legislator Chen Ming-wen (陳明文) and her former presidential running mate, Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) — among the 10 elected members of the Central Standing Committee.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
This will make it easier for Tsai to consolidate her power in the party and to initiate proposals or defend her policies.
It also highlighted Su Jia-chyuan’s official return to the party’s power structure after a hiatus for almost two years since the 2012 presidential election and the controversy over a residence he built on land zoned solely for agricultural use in Pingtung County.
The biennial elections for the Central Executive Committee, the Central Standing Committee and the Central Review Committee, which oversees the DPP’s internal affairs, were held during yesterday’s congress.
The Central Standing Committee, the DPP’s highest decisionmaking body, has 17 members: the chairperson, three DPP caucus executives, three mayors and 10 elected members — who are chosen from among the 30-person Central Executive Committee.
Almost all the DPP’s former factions fared equally winning seats on the Central Standing Committee. The former New Tide faction won two seats, as did a “faction” of Tsai, Yu and Hsieh, while former DPP chairman Su Tseng-chang’s (蘇貞昌) faction won one seat, as did the Green Friendship Alliance.
The same balanced of power is now found on the Central Executive Committee after the election, with New Tide and the Tsai-Yu-Hsieh side each winning five seats, followed by Greater Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu’s (陳菊) faction, which has four seats. Su’s faction and the Green Friendship Alliance each won three seats.
Central Executive Committee member Hung Chi-kune (洪智坤) failed to win re-elected due to a lack of support from any faction.
Eleven Central Review Committee members were also elected.
The DPP voted to ban party factions during its national congress in June 2006, though the groupings are still recognized by many people inside and out of the party.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) banned party factions in January 2008.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
BACK TO WINTER: A strong continental cold air mass would move south on Tuesday next week, bringing colder temperatures to northern and central Taiwan A tropical depression east of the Philippines could soon be upgraded to be the first tropical storm of this year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the next cold air mass is forecast to arrive on Monday next week. CWA forecaster Cheng Jie-ren (鄭傑仁) said the first tropical depression of this year is over waters east of the Philippines, about 1,867km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), and could strengthen into Tropical Storm Nokaen by early today. The system is moving slowly from northwest to north, and is expected to remain east of the Philippines with little chance of affecting Taiwan,
RSS