The Green Party Taiwan yesterday announced four legislator-at-large candidates for next year’s January legislative elections, while the Social Democratic Party (SDP) plans to nominate more candidates next month as part of a “Green-SDP Alliance.”
The four candidates are Green Party Taiwan co-convener Lee Ken-cheng (李根政), Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights CEO Victoria Hsu (許秀雯), veteran labor activist Chang Li-fun (張麗芬) and lawyer Thomas Chan (詹順貴).
However, the Green Party Taiwan added that it still needs to hold hearings at its local chapters to communicate with party members before ranking its legislator-at-large list, which it plans to re-rank after factoring in candidates to be nominated by the SDP next month.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Shouting slogans, the four candidates vowed to introduce a new opposition force to the legislature’s bipartisan politics by tapping into their collective experience campaigning for environmental protection and labor rights, as well as the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights movement.
Lee said that both the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) favor business conglomerates through the deregulation of environmental laws and the promotion of industries that pollute heavily and consume large amounts of energy.
Lee said there are few lawmakers who speak up for the environment and minorities, adding a new opposition party in the legislature is urgently needed to stand firm on a sustainable and localized environmental and economic platform.
Adding that a marriage equality bill has been mothballed by the legislature for almost two years since it passed its first reading in 2013, Hsu said that both the KMT and the DPP have sided with anti-LGBT camps in an attempt to win votes, paying little attention to gay rights.
A progressive force other than the two major political parties is needed to fight for the rights of LGBT groups, Hsu said, adding that her policies would be structured according to the principles of gender equality and a sustainable and fair economy.
Chang said the nation’s economic gains have only benefited large businesses, and that both the KMT and DPP have been striving for economic growth, but have paradoxically contributed to deteriorating working conditions.
Workers need to stand up against the oligarchy of major parties and businesses and unite with progressive powers to effect changes in the legislature, Chang said.
A long-time environmental activist, Chan said that social movements and his personal involvement have contributed to the creation of several acts and enactment of legal reforms.
He proposed that the alliance, should it win enough votes to gain a political party subsidy and legislative seats, divert one-third of the subsidy and one-third of its legislative assistants to social movements and empowerment programs.
SDP Secretary-General Urda Yen (嚴婉玲) said her party would nominate at least two legislator-at-large candidates from the fields of social welfare and culture next month.
In other developments, SDP legislative candidates yesterday met with Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) to discuss possible collaboration if they are elected to the legislature.
SDP convener Fan Yun (范雲) said Ko’s belief that politics should “transcend the pan-blue and pan-green camps” was similar to the party’s own ideas, adding that the party hoped Ko would provide his input on how to live up to that ideal.
Fan said Ko shared with the candidates his experience in last year’s mayoral election and his predictions on the results of the legislative elections, which he said would create a political landscape composed of “one large, one medium and many smalls,” with no one party winning a majority.
Ko was quoted by Fan as saying that the “one large” would be the DPP.
Additional reporting by Sean Lin
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened 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), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS