Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator-elect Fu Kun-chi yesterday reiterated his intention to run for legislative speaker.
At a press conference in Hualien County’s Jian Township (吉安) yesterday, Fu outlined his platform based on various reforms, including enhancing functions of legislative committees, transparency in operating budgets and for legislators to be given the power to issue subpoenas in conducting investigations.
The announcement by Fu, a former Hualien County commissioner, runs counter to his party, as KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) has already given backing to KMT nominees Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) and Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) to run for legislative speaker and deputy speaker positions respectively.
At a banquet last night, Han called for party unity and asked for support for his run for the speakership.
Voting is scheduled for Feb. 1, the first day of the new legislature.
In the Jan. 13 legislative elections, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) secured 51 seats in the 113-seat legislature, the KMT 52 and the Taiwan People’s Party eight. Another two seats were won by independents aligned with the KMT.
Meanwhile, Legislative Speaker You Si-kun of the DPP, in an effort to retain his speaker’s position, extolled his forging of new relations with foreign countries’ parliaments.
He said yesterday that the speaker plays a vital role in Taiwan’s diplomatic relations, but if the new speaker has a pro-China stance and has personal links to Beijing, then it would be difficult for the legislature to engage properly in foreign affairs.
Separately, DPP Hualien County Councilor Hu Jen-shun (胡仁順) yesterday criticized Fu, saying he “should try to reform himself first.”
Hu said that when Fu was a county commissioner and faced criticism from county councilors over his policies, Fu would use government resources and media to conduct smear campaigns and freeze project funds that were requested by councilors for local constituencies.
Additional reporting by Wang Chin-yi and Chiang Chih-hsiung
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
88.2 PERCENT INCREASE: The variants driving the current outbreak are not causing more severe symptoms, but are ‘more contagious’ than previous variants, an expert said Number of COVID-19 cases in the nation is surging, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describing the ongoing wave of infections as “rapid and intense,” and projecting that the outbreak would continue through the end of July. A total of 19,097 outpatient and emergency visits related to COVID-19 were reported from May 11 to Saturday last week, an 88.2 percent increase from the previous week’s 10,149 visits, CDC data showed. The nearly 90 percent surge in case numbers also marks the sixth consecutive weekly increase, although the total remains below the 23,778 recorded during the same period last year,
RSS