The application for a referendum on the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) will be discussed on Wednesday as scheduled, despite the proposer withdrawing from a hearing yesterday, Referendum Review Committee chairman Chao Yung-mau (趙永茂) said.
Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝), the initiator of the referendum proposal, said Chao should, as committee chairman, not convene the hearing. Huang then withdrew from the hearing.
Huang filed an administrative lawsuit in the Taipei High Administrative Court after his application was vetoed by the committee last year, but the court dismissed his lawsuit.
Photo: CNA
Huang then took the case to the Supreme Administrative Court, which overruled the Taipei High Administrative Court, saying that the committee has to review the application.
The TSU chairman told a press conference yesterday that a July 10 meeting of the review committee, which discussed the agenda and process of the hearing, was illegal because committee members at the meeting were less than the required threshold of half of the total number of members.
The TSU would file a report to the Control Yuan and demand an investigation into illegal practices in related government agencies, including the Ministry of the Interior, he said.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
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