Green Party Taiwan (GPT) has nominated former party secretary-general Calvin Wen (溫炳原) for the legislative byelection in Taipei City's sixth constituency, vowing to bring its green platform and to raise environmental awareness in the legislature.
The byelection will be held on March 28 following the resignation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Diane Lee (李慶安) earlier last month over allegations that she holds dual citizenship. The US Department of State recently confirmed that Lee's US citizenship is still valid. The Nationality Act (國籍法) bans government officials from holding dual citizenship.
“We wanted to nominate someone who can represent us well. We selected Wen because he had been involved with GPT since its founding in 1996, so he has a good grasp of the international Green [parties] and how to connect with them,” GPT Secretary-General Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) said yesterday.
PHOTO: CNA
Wen said the main thread in his campaign policy was to transform Taiwan's economy into a green one.
“By collecting carbon taxes and capping carbon emissions, public transportation systems will be made more efficient and there will be fewer private cars on the road,” he said.
“Although GPT will only have one seat in the legislature [if elected], I will be the people's eyes and ears in the legislature. I will report to my voters any under-the-table deals,” he said.
Wen's nomination came as a surprise, as GPT had said it would choose a nominee from three potential candidates — Pan, US-born naturalized Taiwanese Robin Winkler (文魯彬) and the party's founding member Chang Shu-mei (張淑玫).
Winkler's announcement that he would bid for GPT's nomination had drawn wide attention, with the Chinese-language media portraying him as the “opposite” of Lee. However, the Nationality Act states that a naturalized Taiwanese cannot run for public office until at least 10 years after his or her naturalization. Winkler was naturalized in 2003.
Asked if Winkler knew that he was not eligible to enter the election, Pan yesterday said: “[Winkler] thinks that there is room [to work with].”
When asked to elaborate, Pan said Winkler could look into the law and obtain candidacy as an independent candidate through registration and appeal.
When telephoned for confirmation, Winkler said: “Yes, I have not given up yet.”
In related news, although the Central Election Commission (CEC) revoked Lee's elected status as Taipei City councilor and legislator, it will not ask her to return election subsidies she received for the elections.
The election law states that a candidate who receives more than a certain number of votes in an election is eligible to receive NT$30 for each vote he or she receives. Having been elected as Taipei City councilor in 1994 and as legislator in 1998, 2001, 2004 and 2008, Lee had received more than NT$8.6 million (US$251,000) in election subsidies.
“Unlike the President and Vice President Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法), the Election and Recall Act for Public Servants (公職人員選舉罷免法) only requires the elected person to give up foreign citizenship before taking the oath of office,” the CEC said in a statement released late on Tuesday. “Having foreign citizenship, according to the law, does not block anyone from running in the election, and thus the CEC would still compensate the candidate.”
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY LOA IOK-SIN
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
The Civil Aviation Administration yesterday said that it is considering punishments for China Airlines (CAL) and Starlux Airlines for making hard landings and overworking their cabin crew when the nation was hit by Typhoon Kong-rey in October last year. The civil aviation authority launched an investigation after media reported that many airlines were forced to divert their flights to different airports or go around after failing to land when the typhoon affected the nation on Oct. 30 and 31 last year. The agency reviewed 503 flights dispatched by Taiwanese airlines during those two days, as well as weather data, flight hours
Three people have had their citizenship revoked after authorities confirmed that they hold Chinese ID cards, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said yesterday. Two of the three people were featured in a recent video about Beijing’s “united front” tactics by YouTuber Pa Chiung (八炯) and Taiwanese rapper Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源), including Su Shi-en (蘇士恩), who displayed a Chinese ID card in the video, and taekwondo athlete Lee Tung-hsien (李東憲), who mentioned he had obtained a Chinese ID card in a telephone call with Chen, Liang told the council’s weekly news conference. Lee, who reportedly worked in
RSS