The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday announced that its Taipei chapter chairperson election has been suspended until President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) takes over as party chair following her second inauguration on Wednesday next week.
Former legislator Hsueh Ling (薛凌) and former Taipei city councilor Wang Hsiao-wei (王孝維) have accused each other of bribery, with Wang alleging that Hsueh’s campaign team was behind reports of his criminal record 42 years ago.
The disciplinary committee investigating the issue reported its findings to the DPP Central Standing Committee meeting on Wednesday, stating that the fighting between the two campaigns was detrimental to party unity.
While both camps have toned down their allegations after warnings, the feud has damaged the party’s reputation in the public’s eye, the report said.
Article 22 of the DPP’s Regulations on Disciplinary Committee Rulings states that allegations on the party or its members failing to pass through proper channels within the party and ultimately causing the loss of reputation for the individual is punishable by deprivation of party privileges for up to two years.
DPP Chairman Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) had given Hsueh and Wang until 8pm on Wednesday to reach an agreement not to slander the other or the Taipei election would be suspended, while other party elections would proceed as scheduled.
It was regrettable that Hsueh and Wang could not exercise more self-restraint and refrain from further attacks, Cho said.
The DPP must ensure the smooth progression, as well as the legality, of elections of party positions, he said.
“We must live up to the public’s expectations of what the DPP should be — a responsible political party that supports democracy,” he said.
All members should abide by party regulations and defend the party’s values, he added.
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