The Central Election Commission (CEC) said yesterday that the British government had responded to its inquiry and confirmed that none of the candidates in the presidential election are British citizens.
"The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office has confirmed that there are no records to indicate that presidential candidates Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) or vice presidential candidates Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and Vicent Siew (蕭萬長) have been registered or naturalized as British citizens," a statement released by the CEC said.
CEC Secretary-General Teng Tien-yu (
In late January, the Democractic Progressive Party's (DPP) Hsieh accused his Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) counterpart, of holding a US green card. In response, Ma said he once had a green card but it was invalidated in the mid-1980s when he traveled to the US on a visa.
Hsieh insists Ma's green card is still valid. Some members of the DPP and the party's supporters have speculated that Ma may be a US citizen.
To clarify the candidates' citizenship status, the CEC late last month made inquiries through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the governments of the US, Japan and the UK.
Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) suggested last week that Ma may be a British citizen, as Ma was born in Hong Kong when it was a British colony. Ma's campaign said the allegation was laughable, but did not rule out legal action.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
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