Several minor parties with progressive agendas made gains in Saturday’s elections, including the Green Party Taiwan (GPT), which clinched its first electoral victories since it was founded in 1996.
Two out of the nine GPT candidates running for city and county councilor posts nationwide won, indicating growing support for the party’s platform of environmental awareness and grassroots social activism.
Chou Chiang-chieh (周江杰) was elected county councilor in Hsinchu County’s Chutung (竹東) and Wufeng (五峰) districts on the GPT’s ticket after a campaign bolstered by volunteers who canvassed hilly terrain on bicycles.
GPT candidate Wang Hao-yu (王浩宇) finished a surprising second in the contest for 10 council seats in Taoyuan’s Chungli District (中壢).
As the founder and moderator of a popular Facebook page titled: “I am from Chungli,” which features local news and entertainment, Wang channeled traffic generated by the page into support for his campaign, garnering 16,269 votes.
Meanwhile, the Tree Party — a GPT splinter organization founded earlier this year by former GPT secretary-general Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) — triumphed in the mayoral election for Nantou County’s Chichi Township (集集), marking a successful start for the party.
Vowing to represent the interests of trees, cats and dogs, along with “all those who cannot speak for themselves,” the Tree Party basked in additional wins, including one in Chichi for Chen Chi-heng (陳紀衡) and Hsu Yu-lun’s (許育綸) campaign for a citizen representative seat in Hsinchu County’s Chubei Township (竹北).
Minor left-wing parties also made gains, with the socialist pro-unification Labor Party holding on to Gao Wei-kai’s (高偉凱) seat in the Hsinchu County Council, while its only other candidate, Chen Shin-yuan (陳新源), also succeeded, winning a citizen representative contest in Hsinchu County’s Hsinpu Township (新埔).
People Are The Boss — a party founded by labor rights activist Cheng Tsun-chi (鄭村棋) in 2011 — managed to grab one borough warden post, although it fielded 37 candidates nationwide, including in the mayoral races for Keelung and Chiayi City.
Advocates for more political autonomy for Aborigines celebrated wins for the Taiwan First Nations Party, a new group that saw three of its six candidates triumph.
Rungquan lhkatafatu, a Thao Aborigine, claimed a dramatic victory in the contest for the Plains Aborigines seat in the Nantou County Council, beating his rival by a single vote.
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
HEALTHCARE: Following a 2022 Constitutional Court ruling, Taiwanese traveling overseas for six months would no longer be able to suspend their insurance Measures allowing people to suspend National Health Insurance (NHI) services if they plan to leave the country for six months would be abolished starting Dec. 23, NHIA Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said yesterday. The decision followed the Constitutional Court’s ruling in 2022 that the regulation was unconstitutional and that it would invalidate the regulation automatically unless the NHIA amended it to conform with the Constitution. The agency would amend the regulations to remove the articles and sections that allow the suspension of NHI services, and also introduce provisional clauses for those who suspended their NHI services before Dec. 23, Shih said. According to
Minister of Labor Ho Pei-shan (何佩珊) yesterday apologized after the suicide of a civil servant earlier this month and announced that a supervisor accused of workplace bullying would be demoted. On Nov. 4, a 39-year-old information analyst at the Workforce Development Agency’s (WDA) northern branch, which covers greater Taipei and Keelung, as well as Yilan, Lienchiang and Kinmen counties, was found dead in their office. WDA northern branch director Hsieh Yi-jung (謝宜容), who has been accused of involvement in workplace bullying, would be demoted to a nonsupervisory position, Ho told a news conference in Taipei. WDA Director-General Tsai Meng-liang (蔡孟良) said he would