The legislature’s Internal Administration Committee yesterday passed an initial review of five Executive Yuan-nominated Central Election Commission (CEC) members in the absence of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers, who withdrew in protest because one of the nominees was not present and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順), who presided over the review, was “missing” for 50 minutes.
Holding up a sign that read “Please help look for missing Internal Administration Committee convener Huang Chao-shun,” DPP legislators Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃), Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲) and Huang Jen-shu (黃仁杼), as well as KMT legislators Lu Chia-chen (盧嘉辰) and Chen Fu-hai (陳福海), stood in front of the chairperson’s seat, asking where she was.
“Huang [Chao-shun] declared a 10-minute break at 9:25am, but it’s 10:11am now, and we don’t know her whereabouts,” Chen Ting-fei said. “Should we call the police?”
Twu said that as the chair of the meeting, “Huang [Chao-shun] is disrespecting the committee and her colleagues by being absent for so long in the middle of a meeting without telling us where she is.”
KMT lawmakers were equally curious about Huang Chao-shun’s whereabouts.
Meanwhile, Chai Song-lin (柴松林), one of the five nominees, did not attend the meeting because he was not in the country.
Chai is a current CEC member whose term ends on Nov. 3, as do the terms of incumbent nominees Kuo Yu-ying (郭昱瑩) and Tuan Chung-min (段重民). The other two nominees — Deputy Minister of the Interior Lin Tzu-ling (林慈玲) and National University of Kaohsiung’s Department of Government and Law professor Chen Wen-sheng (陳文生) — are first-time nominees.
Chai’s absence upset lawmakers across party lines because the committee was not informed beforehand.
However, lawmakers were divided on whether the meeting should continue without Chai.
“[Chai] is certainly looking down upon the Legislative Yuan by not showing up,” Huang Jen-shu said. “If we cannot question everyone, how are we supposed to review their qualifications? How do we know what their opinions are on various issues? I propose that we call the meeting off.”
KMT Legislator Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛) disagreed, saying “since the meeting has been scheduled, it should continue without him. Otherwise, we’re not respecting the other four nominees who took the time to be here.”
Because the two sides could not reach a consensus, Huang Chao-shun declared a 10-minute break for negotiations at 9:25am.
However, instead of negotiating with DPP lawmakers, Huang Chao-shun disappeared until 10:15am. When Huang Chao-shun finally reappeared, she only said “maybe my watch was not working” when questioned as to her whereabouts.
Not satisfied with her answer, DPP lawmakers lodged a protest, prompting Huang Chao-shun to call another break only minutes after the meeting resumed.
When the meeting finally resumed again at noon, the committee quickly gave the green light to all five nominees because all DPP lawmakers had decided to withdraw in protest.
The nominees will be referred to the general assembly for a vote.
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
Weather conditions across Taiwan are expected to remain stable today, but cloudy to rainy skies are expected from tomorrow onward due to increasing moisture in the atmosphere, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). Daytime highs today are expected to hit 25-27°C in western Taiwan and 22-24°C in the eastern counties of Yilan, Hualien, and Taitung, data on the CWA website indicated. After sunset, temperatures could drop to 16-17°C in most parts of Taiwan. For tomorrow, precipitation is likely in northern Taiwan as a cloud system moves in from China. Daytime temperatures are expected to hover around 25°C, the CWA said. Starting Monday, areas
A Taiwanese software developer has created a generative artificial intelligence (AI) model to help people use AI without exposing sensitive data, project head Huang Chung-hsiao (黃崇校) said yesterday. Huang, a 55-year-old coder leading a US-based team, said that concerns over data privacy and security in popular generative AIs such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek motivated him to develop a personal AI assistant named “Mei.” One of the biggest security flaws with cloud-based algorithms is that users are required to hand over personal information to access the service, giving developers the opportunity to mine user data, he said. For this reason, many government agencies and
The National Fire Agency on Thursday said a series of drills simulating a magnitude 8.5 earthquake would be held in September to enhance the government’s emergency response capabilities. Since earthquakes cannot be predicted, only by continuously promoting disaster prevention measures could Taiwan enhance its resilience to earthquakes, agency Director-General Hsiao Huan-chang (蕭煥章) said in a news release. The exercises would be held to mark annual National Disaster Prevention Day on Sept. 21, the aim of which is to test Taiwan’s preparedness and improve its earthquake resilience in case of a major temblor, Hsiao said. As part of those drills, an earthquake alert would