College students launched a crowdfunding campaign to charter buses to take students home to vote for the presidential and legislative elections on Saturday, saying the campaign would help young people participate in democracy and exercise their rights.
Student association leaders from National Taiwan, National Chengchi and National Yang-Ming universities as well as Mackay Medical College yesterday told a news conference in Taipei that they raised funds to pay for students to travel home so they can to boost voter numbers.
A majority of college students study away from home and the cost of bus fare and travel time could deter people from going home to vote. The campaign was organized to help young people exercise their political rights, the leaders said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“It is a display of direct democracy that students go home and vote. It allows young people to express their voice and exercise their rights,” National Chengchi University student association president Chen Yi-lin (陳億霖) said.
About 145 charter buses with a total capacity of 2,500 seats have been offered free of charge or at a discounted price to students at various locations. Buses are scheduled to depart on Friday after the exam week, Chen said.
The campaign expanded on a similar 2014 crowdfunding campaign organized by Taiwan Citizen Union that financed students to return home and vote. This year’s campaign is expected to see a 10 percent increase in the number of voters who return home, Chen said.
National Yang-Ming University student association president Chen Chia-ching (陳佳菁) said that Taiwan has 18.81 million registered voters and 5.11 million of them are aged between 20 and 34, while first-time voters account for 6.8 percent of total voters, making the younger voter group a key player in determining election outcomes.
Asia University student and member of the Independent Youth Front Liu Hui-chung (劉惠中) said about six out of 10 voters aged between 20 and 40 turned out for the last election, but young voter turnout increased to more than 70 percent in the nine-in-one elections in 2014, and the 10 percent increase was what overturned the traditional political territory.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
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
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
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
RSS