New Power Party (NPP) Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday said he was confident that the party’s approval rating would hit 20 percent by next year.
Although it only has 2,238 members, a recent poll found that it had an approval rating of 17 percent, Huang said at the NPP’s first-ever general assembly at its headquarters in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店).
The NPP is a vigorous party with a vigorous culture, Huang said.
Photo: Ho Yu-hua, Taipei Times
The theme for next year’s presidential and legislative elections would be further discussed after a management reshuffle according to the revised party charter, he said.
The charter needs to be revised due to provisions of the Political Party Act (政黨法), Huang said, adding that this was one of the issues discussed at the assembly.
When the NPP was formed, the act did not exist and the charter does not conform with its regulations, Huang said.
The revised charter would include portions specifying age requirements for members, introducing the party’s logo, as well as describing its organizational structure and rules for the election of party representatives, he said.
Hopefully, party members who have excelled — especially those who performed admirably in last year’s local elections — would be elected to the standing committee, NPP Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐) said.
Several NPP members called for the party to sanction NPP Taoyuan chapter director Tseng Wei-kai (曾威凱) for publicly supporting independent Taipei city councilor candidate Wang Yi-kai (王奕凱) instead of the party’s nominee, Huang Yu-fen (黃郁芬), when they contested the Shilin-Beitou (士林-北投) constituency ahead of last year’s elections.
Tseng before the elections said on Facebook: “Friends in Shilin and Beitou, please do not hesitate to support No. 11 Wang Yi-kai.”
Huang, who won the election, said she was against punishment or a demand for an apology, but called for clearly defined rules to prevent similar incidents.
The motion to subject Tseng to disciplinary measures was vetoed, with the party ruling that punishment would not be conducive to party inclusiveness, while party rules relating to such situations are yet to be established.
However, the party passed a resolution to create rules to prevent similar incidents.
Before the assembly, Tseng said that he would respect the opinions of party members regardless of their decision.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
China’s newest Type-076 amphibious assault ship has two strengths and weaknesses, wrote a Taiwanese defense expert, adding that further observations of its capabilities are warranted. Jiang Hsin-biao (江炘杓), an assistant researcher at the National Defense and Security Research, made the comments in a report recently published by the institute about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military and political development. China christened its new assault ship Sichuan in a ceremony on Dec. 27 last year at Shanghai’s Hudong Shipyard, China’s Xinhua news agency reported. “The vessel, described as the world’s largest amphibious assault ship by the [US think tank] Center for Strategic and International
RSS