The Executive Yuan yesterday called on Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
The court is scheduled to make public its ruling on a lawsuit filed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) to nullify the result of the March 20 presidential election at 4pm.
In addition to calling on Ma to shoulder his legal responsibility, Cabinet Spokesman Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) called on Ma, who doubles as a vice chairman of the KMT, to use his personal and political influence to persuade the party not to stage or support any illegal congregations or marches today.
"While society is gradually resuming stability, opposition parties should come out of the March 20 shadow and learn to trust and respect the judicial system as well as stop inciting political and ethnic confrontations," he said.
Citing the Assembly and Parade Law (集會遊行法), Chen said that it is illegal to stage protests outside certain government agencies, including courtrooms.
"While some pan-blue parties have threatened to mobilize their supporters to surround the Taiwan High Court when the court delivers its verdict [today], we'd like them to know that it's illegal to stage such protests and so far we have not yet received any application to do so," he said.
According to the law, congregations or marches are banned 300m around the Presidential Office, Executive Yuan, Judicial Yuan, Examination Yuan, courtrooms, official residences of the president and vice president, as well as military compounds, embassies and foreign representative offices.
Meanwhile, during yesterday's Cabinet meeting, Ma criticized the Cabinet's Council for Economic Planning and Development (經建會) for failing to help Taipei and other metropolitan cities raise their international profile by providing information to international institutions such as the World Economic Forum (WEF) to add them in its global competitiveness report.
"While the WEF placed Taiwan No. 4 among 104 countries in its Global Competitiveness Report 2004-2005, the council has no idea that Taipei City ranks 11th in competitiveness among the world's 53 countries," Chen quoted Ma as saying.
Ma proposed that the council take the initiative to provide the WEF with the city's information as well as that of other big cities such as Kaohsiung and Taichung so they would be added to the institution's ranking list.
In the city competitiveness rankings, Ma said that Singapore is first and Hong Kong is No. 2, while Shanghai is 25th and Beijing 35th.
Thomas Yeh (
Also See Story:
Murder Chen if he wins election suit, Lien says
GENDER ROW: The IOC has stripped the boxing association, which disqualified Lin Yu-ting at the 2023 World Championships, of its status as the sport’s global governing body The Sports Administration yesterday protested the International Boxing Association’s (IBA) stance on a gender row involving a Taiwanese fighter at the Paris Games, saying the nation’s Olympic committee was considering filing a lawsuit. A storm erupted over the participation of Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) and Algeria’s Imane Khelif at the Paris Olympics when Khelif’s Italian opponent pulled out of their bout less than a minute into the fight after taking a barrage of punches. On Sunday, Lin beat Svetlana Staneva of Bulgaria via a unanimous decision in a featherweight quarter-final fight. The IBA on Monday said that Lin and Khelif had been disqualified from
Cheaper hotel rates and delicious street food made Taipei the most affordable city in Asia to visit in the second half of this year, a travel trend analysis conducted by Leisure and Travel magazine and the Web site Kayak.com showed. Taipei and nine other Asian cities were selected as affordable travel destinations based on “average round-trip economy airfare” and “the average rate of a one-night stay in a standard double hotel room,” they said. The results of their analysis, published on Wednesday last week, showed that the average cost of a round-trip flight and one night at a hotel in Taipei was
MESSAGE TO THE WORLD: A letter by overseas Taiwanese organizations also called on the international community to ‘support democracy’ by opposing Chinese pressure Twenty-four overseas Taiwanese organizations in a joint letter urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to stop infringing on spectators’ freedom of speech and allow them to display Taiwan signage. The letter, addressed to IOC president Thomas Bach and members of the IOC executive board, was led by the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA), along with 23 other overseas Taiwanese organizations from the US, Japan, Europe, Argentina and Costa Rica. During the Olympic games, signs or items with the words “Taiwan” on them have been snatched away by Olympic security staff or Chinese spectators. Some spectators holding such signs have been forcibly
OFFICIALS’ BACKING: Premier Cho Jung-tai said that the boxer has the backing of the government and those spreading misinformation about Lin would be condemned Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) on Wednesday advanced to the gold-medal bout in the women’s 57kg (featherweight) boxing division at the Paris Olympics. Lin defeated Esra Yildiz Kahraman of Turkey 5-0. It was Lin’s third win at the Games ahead of the final bout for gold on Sunday against Julia Szeremeta of Poland. “I will use everything I’ve learned in my life to do my best in the next match,” Lin said through an interpreter. Lin and welterweight Imane Khelif of Algeria have won every round in all three of their Olympic bouts, despite the distractions created by the fallout from the International