The Green Party Taiwan (GPT) announced yesterday that it has settled on five of its 10 candidates for January's legislative elections.
"We have confirmed five candidates out of the 10 we plan to nominate. We are still debating our legislator-at-large seats because these will provide the best positions from which to push environmental issues," GPT Secretary-General Pan Han-shen (
Pan will contest Taipei City's Songshan (松山) and Xinyi (信義) districts, Calvin Wen (溫炳原) Taipei County's Shulin (樹林) and Yingge (鶯歌), Mary Chen (陳曼麗) Taipei County's Yonghe (永和), Hung Hui-hsiang (洪輝祥) Pingtung and Chung Pao-chu (鍾寶珠) Hualien.
Pan said the party may yet decide to nominate Chung and Chen for legislator-at-large seats to maximise their participation in environmental debates.
He added that the party wants to push for government funding for minority representatives and for limits on campaign spending so that "the Legislative Yuan isn't dominated by well-connected and well-funded people."
The GPT hopes to raise at least NT$4 million (US$123,483) to support its election efforts.
Pan said he would push for the cancelation of the NT$200,000 election deposit required of each legislative candidate.
"Ten nominees will cost us NT$2 million -- just for the deposits. We urge like-minded people to support us in this," he said.
Pan said the GPT has three priorities: "To change the structure of Taiwan's economy and promote a low-carbon economy, to vote against the construction of the Suhua Freeway and to build a second forest park instead of a second dome complex on the site of the old Songshan Tobacco Factory."
"We are talking with several social movement groups about joining forces in the election. However, regardless of whether we find a partner or not, we will enter the election to make our voices heard," he said.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
New Party Deputy Secretary-General You Chih-pin (游智彬) this morning went to the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to “turn himself in” after being notified that he had failed to provide proof of having renounced his Chinese household registration. He was one of more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from China who were informed by the NIA that their Taiwanese citizenship might be revoked if they fail to provide the proof in three months, people familiar with the matter said. You said he has proof that he had renounced his Chinese household registration and demanded the NIA provide proof that he still had Chinese