Cabinet officials should observe certain principles when they canvass votes or stump for candidates during the upcoming legislative by-elections, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said yesterday.
Wu said that while he did not oppose ministerial-level officials canvassing votes for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidates running in the by-elections for four legislative seats on Feb. 27, vote-soliciting initiatives should not be in violation of party or government regulations.
He said canvassing must be carried out under the principle that a minister will not compromise his or her position during the activity, that no national resources or budgets be used for particular candidates and that officials must be make careful use of their language.
The premier also said that justice and education ministers, as well as the director-general of the National Police Agency, were unsuitable for appearances at such functions.
While civil servants have the right to express verbal support for candidates when they are off-duty, such stumping must not be “too much,” Wu said.
The KMT has fielded Apollo Chen (陳學聖), Cheng Yung-tang (鄭永堂), Lin Te-jui (林德瑞) and Wang Ting-sheng (王廷升) as candidates in the Feb. 27 legislative by-elections for Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Chiayi and Hualien counties respectively.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) is to begin his one-year alternative military service tomorrow amid ongoing legal issues, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Wang, who last month was released on bail of NT$150,000 (US$4,561) as he faces charges of allegedly attempting to evade military service and forging documents, has been ordered to report to Taipei Railway Station at 9am tomorrow, the Alternative Military Service Training and Management Center said. The 33-year-old would join about 1,300 other conscripts in the 263rd cohort of general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung, a center official told reporters. Wang would first
MINOR DISRUPTION: The outage affected check-in and security screening, while passport control was done manually and runway operations continued unaffected The main departure hall and other parts of Terminal 2 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport lost power on Tuesday, causing confusion among passengers before electricity was fully restored more than an hour later. The outage, the cause of which is still being investigated, began at about midday and affected parts of Terminal 2, including the check-in gates, the security screening area and some duty-free shops. Parts of the terminal immediately activated backup power sources, while others remained dark until power was restored in some of the affected areas starting at 12:23pm. Power was fully restored at 1:13pm. Taoyuan International Airport Corp said in a