Six pairs of presidential election candidates fielded by independents and small political parties completed their registration with the Central Election Commission (CEC) yesterday, the last day for presidential candidacy registration.
They are independent Lee -Hsing-chang (李幸長) and his running mate Wu Wu-ming (吳武明), People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) and his running mate, Lin Ruey-shiung (林瑞雄), the Taiwanese National Party’s Chuang Mung-hsieh (莊孟學) and his running mate, Huang Guohua (黃國華), People United Party Chairperson Hsu Jung-shu (許榮淑) and her running mate, Wu Chia-li (吳嘉琍), independent Kao Kuo-ching (高國慶) and his running mate, Teng Hsiu-pao (鄧秀寶), and independent Lin Ching-ying (林金瑛) and running mate Shih Hsiang-ching (石翊靖). According to CEC regulations, an endorsement process is required for presidential aspirants unless they represent a political party that won at least 5 percent of the vote in the last presidential or legislative election.
Independents must collect signatures from at least 1.5 percent of eligible voters, or 257,695 signatures, within 45 days after the launch of the public endorsement period on Sept. 22.
As of now, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who is seeking re-election as member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), and Democratic Progressive Party Chairwoman (DPP) Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) are the only full-fledged candidates.
On Sept. 13, independent presidential aspirant Ellen Huang (黃越綏) announced her decision to drop out of January’s presidential election.
Saying that she would have to pay a NT$1 million (US$33,900) registration fee to the CEC to become a presidential candidate through signature collection and a subsequent fee of NT$15 million to formally register, the 64-year-old social activist said: “It is more significant to buy 20,000 lunch boxes for the underprivileged than to hand NT$1 million to the CEC.”
She also said that she would never have been able to obtain the signatures needed to enter as an independent presidential candidate.
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
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
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