The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Central Standing Committee has decided to push back this year’s elections for chairperson and party delegates, KMT Culture and Communications Committee director-general Alicia Wang (王育敏) said yesterday.
According to election procedures passed by the committee on May 5, the elections for KMT chairperson and delegates to the party’s 21st National Congress are to be held on July 24.
Under the previously approved date, people seeking to run in the elections would have to register their candidacies on June 7 or June 8.
Photo: CNA
Committee members agreed at yesterday’s weekly meeting to postpone the elections in light of the COVID-19 situation, Wang told reporters in a virtual briefing after the meeting.
They also agreed that they would discuss the timeline of the elections at the first committee meeting to take place after the Central Epidemic Command Center lowers the COVID-19 alert to level 2, she said.
A nationwide level 3 COVID-19 alert is in effect until June 14.
The committee did not discuss whether KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang’s (江啟臣) term — which is set to end on Aug. 20 — would be extended or whether a committee member would take his place as acting chairperson should the election be delayed past that date, Wang said.
She reiterated that the committee would wait until after the COVID-19 alert has been lowered to level 2 to discuss details about the elections.
At the beginning of yesterday’s virtual committee meeting, Chiang said he agreed with proposals raised by committee members to delay the elections.
Chiang said he looks forward to the elections taking place after the COVID-19 situation stabilizes.
The domestic COVID-19 situation has become more severe than expected and its impact on people’s lives continues to grow, he said.
While the public has over the past year worked hard to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the government does not seem to have been as well-prepared, Chiang added.
Chiang won the party’s chairperson by-election on March 7 last year and was sworn in two days later.
The by-election was held to fill the vacancy left by former KMT chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), who stepped down after the party’s defeat in the presidential and legislative elections on Jan. 11 last year.
Chiang on Feb. 20 announced that he would seek re-election as KMT chairman.
Additional reporting by CNA
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday voiced dissatisfaction with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans- Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), whose latest meeting, concluded earlier the same day, appeared not to address the country’s application. In a statement, MOFA said the CPTPP commission had "once again failed to fairly process Taiwan’s application," attributing the inaction to the bloc’s "succumbing to political pressure," without elaborating. Taiwan submitted its CPTPP application under the name "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" on Sept. 22, 2021 -- less than a week after China
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
A home-style restaurant opened by a Taiwanese woman in Quezon City in Metro Manila has been featured in the first-ever Michelin Guide honoring exceptional restaurants in the Philippines. The restaurant, Fong Wei Wu (豐味屋), was one of 74 eateries to receive a “Michelin Selected” honor in the guide, while one restaurant received two Michelin stars, eight received one star and 25 were awarded a “Bib Gourmand.” The guide, which was limited to restaurants in Metro Manila and Cebu, was published on Oct. 30. In an interview, Feng Wei Wu’s owner and chef, Linda, said that as a restaurateur in her 60s, receiving an
RSS