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.
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
The Civil Aviation Administration yesterday said that it is considering punishments for China Airlines (CAL) and Starlux Airlines for making hard landings and overworking their cabin crew when the nation was hit by Typhoon Kong-rey in October last year. The civil aviation authority launched an investigation after media reported that many airlines were forced to divert their flights to different airports or go around after failing to land when the typhoon affected the nation on Oct. 30 and 31 last year. The agency reviewed 503 flights dispatched by Taiwanese airlines during those two days, as well as weather data, flight hours
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
Three people have had their citizenship revoked after authorities confirmed that they hold Chinese ID cards, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said yesterday. Two of the three people were featured in a recent video about Beijing’s “united front” tactics by YouTuber Pa Chiung (八炯) and Taiwanese rapper Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源), including Su Shi-en (蘇士恩), who displayed a Chinese ID card in the video, and taekwondo athlete Lee Tung-hsien (李東憲), who mentioned he had obtained a Chinese ID card in a telephone call with Chen, Liang told the council’s weekly news conference. Lee, who reportedly worked in
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