People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) yesterday pledged that he would run in the presidential election, following the announcement that the number of signatures for his presidential petition had passed the threshold and reached 355,589.
Standing with running mate Lin Ruey-shiung (林瑞雄) in front of several dozen supporters, Soong vowed to reach beyond bipartisan politics and improve the lives of Taiwanese if elected, saying the signatures reflected expectations for a prosperous society in which people could determine their own future without being manipulated by political parties, while dismissing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) criticism of his presidential bid.
“The signatures could be seen as a black list [by the government] 30 or 50 years ago. Things are better now and [for the government] this is a troublemaking list ... The nation is divided because of partisan confrontations and it is time to let Taiwanese be their own masters. What Taiwanese want is a government that takes care of its people,” he told a press conference held at Taipei City Council.
Photo: Taipei Times
PFP Vice Chairman Chang Chao-hsiung (張昭雄) said the 355,589 signatures in 142 boxes had been delivered to the Central Election Commission’s (CEC) Taipei branch. The PFP would deliver a second batch of signatures to the commission on Saturday, he said.
The first batch of signatures passed the threshold of 257,695 required under the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法), which stipulates that presidential and vice presidential hopefuls gather signatures amounting to 1.5 percent of voters in the previous election.
The commission’s Taipei branch said it would examine the petition forms, before sending them to the CEC for a final review. Soong and Lin would obtain formal candidacies if the petitions pass the reviews, it said.
Soong expressed interest in joining the presidential election and started his petition in September, despite calls from the KMT for pan-blue unity.
Soong and Lin originally pledged not to join the race unless they collected 1 million signatures to prove their popularity, but Soong later said he would enter the race if the petition passed the legal threshold.
The PFP chairman said his aim was not to knock any candidate out of the race, although he said President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had failed to revive the nation’s economy and reduce the unemployment rate.
He also challenged Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to declare Taiwan independent if she is elected in January.
“I am not targeting any specific candidates. Besides, I will have to knock two candidates out of the race to win the election. People are worried about one of them and they are dissatisfied with the other, so let’s knock both of them out of the race and make things right,” Soong said.
Attending the press conference in support of Soong’s bid, former legislator Li Ao (李敖) condemned the government for setting high thresholds for participation in presidential elections and accused Ma of being a dictatorial leader.
“The key to Ma’s problems do not lie in his incompetence, but in his dictatorship,” Li said.
Li and Chang criticized the role of Ma’s top aide, his re-election campaign executive director King Pu-tsung (金溥聰), in the policymaking process and shared their concerns about the future of Taiwan under the “Ma-King mechanism.”
“Under the Ma-King mechanism, King is the decisionmaker and Ma is the terrible executor — a soulless scarecrow — and such a mechanism is dangerous for Taiwan,” Chang said.
At a separate setting yesterday, KMT Culture and Communications Committee Director Chuang Po-chun (莊伯仲) said the party respected Soong’s decision, but that it would continue its efforts to seek KMT-PFP cooperation.
Tsai, meanwhile, said Soong’s entry was a norm and a protected right of any democratic country.
“He will be a respectable and formidable opponent,” she said.
Additional reporting by Chris Wang
BAIL APPEALS: The former vice premier was ordered to be held incommunicado despite twice being granted bail and paying a total of NT$12 million in bond The Taoyuan District Court yesterday ordered the detention of former vice premier Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), who is being investigated for alleged corruption while serving as Taoyuan mayor from December 2014 to December 2022, and that he be held incommunicado. The court made the ruling during a bail hearing after prosecutors appealed its bail ruling twice. Cheng on Saturday was released after posting bail of NT$5 million (US$153,818). However, after prosecutors lodged an appeal, the High Court on Monday revoked the original ruling and ordered the Taoyuan District Court to hold another bail hearing. On Tuesday, the district court granted bail to Cheng a second
The Thai government on Friday announced that Taiwanese would be allowed to stay in the country for up to 60 days per entry, under the Southeast Asian country’s visa-free program starting from today. Taiwan is among 93 countries included in the Thai visa-waiver program, which has been expanded from 57 countries, with the visa-exempt entry extended from 30 to 60 days. After taking office last year, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has vowed to grant more visa waivers to foreign travelers as part of efforts to stimulate tourism. The expanded visa-waiver program was on Friday signed by Thai Minister of the Interior Anutin
PEACE AND SECURITY: China’s military ambitions present ‘the greatest strategic challenge to Japan and the world, Japan’s annual defense white paper said yesterday Japan yesterday warned that China risked escalating tensions with Taiwan with an increase in military exercises that appeared aimed in part at readying Beijing’s forces for a possible invasion. Japan’s annual assessment of security threats, including those posed by China, North Korea and Russia, comes as Taiwan closely monitors Chinese People’s Liberation Army air and sea exercises, including one with the Shandong aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean. The drills are the latest in a series including maneuvers in the Taiwan Strait last year that a senior US general said would be key to any invasion. “Because of that increase in military activity,
HAN KUANG: The exercises, which are to run from July 22 to 26, will feature unscripted war games and a decentralized command and control structure, military officers said The armed forces would for the first time test new rules of engagement (ROE) at this month’s annual Han Kuang exercises, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday. The exercises, which are to run from July 22 to 26, will feature unscripted war games, and a decentralized command and control structure, military officers told a news conference in Taipei. ROE cards would be issued to select combat troops to test their ability to function without tight control, they said. The most recent edition of the rules was published last year, they said. One of the cards’ two templates identifies enemy targets that soldiers