The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) began a new chapter as the senior members — dubbed the party’s princes and princesses by the media — have all refrained from entering the chairmanship election, DPP Chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said yesterday.
“It wasn’t easy for the princes and princesses to refrain from making a bid, which means it is agreed by all within the party that it should have a new beginning,” Hsieh said.
Addressing party members at a conference discussing the future of the DPP, which was badly beaten in the last three national elections, Hsieh said he expected the party could be completely transformed by a new leader.
Hsieh offered to resign as chairman after losing the presidential election to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) last month.
The party will hold the election for chairman on May 18.
Following the decision by former vice premier Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), 52, who many members consider a dream leader for the embattled party, to join the race at the last minute, the party will start coordination with Tsai and the other two candidates this week.
DPP Legislator Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮), 73, and former senior presidential advisor Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏), 82, have also joined the race.
Tsai was selected as a legislator-at-large for the party in the 2005 legislative elections after she registered as a member of the 22-year-old DPP in September 2004.
Yesterday’s meeting concluded a series of eight conferences held around the country over the past two weeks that enabled supporters and party members to examine and suggest ways to solve the party’s problems.
Issues on the agenda at yesterday’s closed-door meeting included the lines the party should take when in power, the organizational development of the party and how the party should face national challenges surrounding the country internationally and domestically.
Conclusions pertaining to the DPP’s charter and platform will be sent to the party’s convention next month for full review, party Secretary-General Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) said.
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but