Lisa Huang (
"Since `non-partisan' means not sharing common political ideology, the public might become confused if such a name is permitted to be registered, as the name and the group's mission do not support one another," said Huang, who is an attorney.
Independent Legislator Su Ying-kuei (
"I was in a taxi today and the cab driver asked me if I was a member of NSU. It seems the public is perplexed about the group," Su said.
The NSU was formed yesterday when Chang Po-ya (
The NSU's membership so far includes nine other members: independent Legislators Yen Chin-piao (顏清標), Tsai Hao (蔡豪), May Chin (高金素梅), Walis Pelin (瓦歷斯貝林) and Chen Chin-ding (陳進丁); former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators Lin Pin-kun (林炳坤), Lu Shin-ming (呂新民); former People First Party (PFP) legislator Chiu Chuang-liang (邱創良); and former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Cheng Yu-cheng (鄭余鎮).
Huang cited the Social Groups Registration Regulation (
"According to this regulation, if a group's name, purpose and mission are not in accordance with one another, then the group's registration does not meet the stipulated procedural requirements," Huang said.
Huang also stated that the NSU is not in position to represent the majority of Taiwanese people who are not registered members of any political party.
"According to statistics, the total number of registered members of political parties comes to about 1.7 million, which is a small proportion of the population. Therefore, the NSU cannot be representative of all the rest," Huang said.
In response, the ministry's Department of Civil Affairs, which is in charge of political party registrations, stated that the ministry respects people's freedom of choice when it comes to selecting party names.
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
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