A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator yesterday accused Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) leaders and their allies of unfairly targeting two indigenous DPP lawmakers, drawing attention to questions regarding the recall of indigenous representatives.
DPP Legislator Saidhai Tahovecahe, representing the highland indigenous constituency, yesterday told reporters that she is being overwhelmed by the KMT party machine, which has called on its local councilors to recall two indigenous DPP lawmakers.
The KMT also joined forces with independent indigenous Legislator May Chin (高金素梅) to set up stations to gather signatures at service offices across the nation, she said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Tahovecahe, a Rukai from Kaohsiung’s Maolin District (茂林) and Asenay Daliyalrep (Chen Ying, 陳瑩), a Puyuma from Taitung County, are the only two elected indigenous DPP legislators.
The electoral system allows indigenous voters to elect six legislators, three for the “highland” and three for the “lowland” constituencies.
Tahovecahe and her aides said that due to the special nature of combined indigenous constituencies, the DPP has not launched any recall drive against the four other indigenous representatives.
On the other hand, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) and other party officials have named both of the DPP’s indigenous legislators as targets, calling it a “precision recall,” and have given instructions for party members and all indigenous councilors at the local level to pool resources toward that effort, Tahovecahe said.
Central Election Commission data released this week show that among the recalls the KMT submitted, Tahovecahe and Daliyalrep were among the 12 (out of 17) legislators who did not reach the required 1 percent threshold, due to errors and irregularities.
The CEC has given the KMT a 10-day grace period to submit additional signatures needed to reach the 1 percent figure.
Former CEC head Chen In-chin (陳英鈐) said the effort to oust indigenous legislators has been a subject of debate, and would require a constitutional interpretation, as the recall process contravenes the principle of “one person one vote, each ballot must be equal in value.”
When electing indigenous representatives, each person has one vote that they use to vote for one among a choice of representatives, meaning that people with relatively less support can still be elected, Chen said.
However, if there is more than one representative up for a vote in a recall, each voter must cast a ballot for or against each person, meaning they have more than one vote per person, Chen said.
“The CEC must solicit expert viewpoints and undertake studies to adjust the recall threshold in such cases of combined multiple electorates,” he added.
Tahovecahe also accused the KMT of directing the recall effort from the top, whereas recall campaigns against the KMT have been initiated on the local level without aid from DPP members.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
RSS