Questions submitted by members of the public through an online platform for the presidential and vice presidential debates will be selected by drawing lots, Internet media outlet Watchout (沃草) said yesterday.
Watchout spokesman Lin Zu-yi (林祖儀) told a press conference in Taipei that only questions tendered on the platform — called “President, may I ask a question?” (總統,給問嗎?) — that have received at least 1,000 signatures from netizens will be considered for the draws.
“Since the platform was launched in October, it has received more than 4,000 questions that netizens want to ask the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates competing in next month’s election,” Lin said, adding that 68 of the questions had met the 1,000-signature threshold as of yesterday.
Lin said that for the first and only vice presidential debate, which is scheduled to be held on Saturday, six out of 15 topics — including the economy, labor, finance, education, cross-strait ties, foreign affairs, healthcare and social welfare — are to be selected by drawing lots.
“For each topic, we will draw a question at random from a pool on Friday, so there will be six questions in total,” Lin said.
As for the second presidential debate planned for Jan. 2, one question will be drawn at random from each five out of the 15 subjects a day before, Lin said.
Questions posed by the public will only be asked in the two aforementioned televised debates, as the first presidential debate on Sunday will only take questions from media representatives.
The representatives of the three political parties participating in the debate welcomed the selection method.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Eric Chu’s (朱立倫) campaign spokesperson Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) said the party welcomed such a fair and open question selection mechanism.
“Each question will be answered by all three candidates, which the KMT finds fair and supports 100 percent,” Hsu said.
Democratic Progressive Party Department of News and Information director Alex Huang (黃重諺) said there were many organizations aspiring to host the debates, but the online platform was the one that best fit the growing trend of openness in the nation’s public affairs.
“It allows people to directly participate in public affairs through the Internet, which is why it can best represent a diversity of public opinions,” Huang said.
People First Party Propaganda Department director Clarence Wu (吳崑玉) said the online platform has not only altered the manner in which the future head of state deals with the public, but can also bring about changes in the legislative mechanism for proposing bills.
The coast guard on Friday took a Chinese fishing boat and the 17 people on board into custody, after it rammed into a patrol boat while attempting to flee. A 100-tonne coast guard vessel at about 8am discovered a Chinese fishing boat illegally operating in waters about 11 nautical miles (20.4km) northwest of Hsinchu, the Hsinchu offshore flotilla of the Coast Guard Administration said. The crew refused to allow law enforcement to board the ship and attempted to flee, it added. The coast guard vessel and another ship chased the fishing boat for about a half hour, during which time the Chinese boat
Vice President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said that Beijing was trying to “annex” Taiwan, while China said its recent series of drills near Taiwan are aimed at combating the “arrogance” of separatist forces. The Ministry of National Defense earlier this month said that it had observed dozens of Chinese fighters, drones, bombers and other aircraft, as well as warships and the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong, operating nearby. The increased frequency of China’s military activities has raised the risk of events “getting out of hand” and sparking an accidental clash, Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said last week. Asked about the spurt
RUNWAY UPGRADES: Airports and ports mainly scattered around southwestern Japan are being given major overhauls, primarily serving as civilian-use facilities Japan has chosen 33 airports and ports as candidates for improvement to enhance military capabilities, with a particular focus on infrastructure that could be utilized in a Taiwan emergency, according to a recent report in Japan’s Nikkei Shimbun. Citing the Japanese government’s fiscal budget proposal for next year, the newspaper said Toyko is to name some facilities as essential bases and receive funding for upgrades in line with the revamped national security strategy published last year. According to an unofficial policy document drafted last month and reviewed by the Nikkei, the Japanese government designated 14 airports and 19 ports for improvement, including
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on Monday said he would not attend the official Double Ten National Day celebrations for the first time this year, as its English name, “Taiwan National Day,” implies “Taiwan independence.” Writing on Facebook, Ma said he has attended every National Day celebration since entering public service 40 years ago, but “with an exceedingly heavy heart,” has decided to reject this year’s invitation. For the past three years, the government under President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has used “Taiwan National Day” for the event’s official English-language title, leaving the “Republic of China” nowhere to be found, he said. The move