The New Power Party (NPP) yesterday announced its new leadership lineup — a seven-member board of chairpersons that it said could prevent abuse of power and encourage participatory democracy — and vowed to win 10 percent of the at-large vote in January’s legislative elections.
The chairpersons are the party’s three legislative candidates — Academia Sinica researcher Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), musician Freddy Lim (林昶佐) and author/playwright Neil Peng (馮光遠) — Soochow University political science professor Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明), lawyers Huang Hsiu-chen (黃秀禎) and Lin Feng-jeng (林?正) and author Lin Shih-yu (林世煜).
They were elected last week by 427 party members through an online poll, with Huang Kuo-chang topping the poll with a 76.11 percent support rate.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The new board yesterday held its first meeting, during which Huang Kuo-chang was elected NPP executive chairman.
Hsu said the party’s Decision-making Committee would consist of the seven-member board and eight members from the party’s executive and policy committees, which would prevent authoritarian rule by a single chairperson and encourage direct participation of party members.
Traditionally, when in office, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party have had the president also serve as the party’s chairperson, which allows the president to interfere with the legislature by manipulating party affairs and reduces the legislature’s oversight power, Haung Kuo-chang said.
“I would not become a permanent executive chairperson, as elections for the board of chairpersons is to be held after each major national poll or when one-sixth of the party members demand it.” Huang Kuo-chang said.
“There will be another election after the legislative polls next year,” he said.
The NPP’s executive chairperson is to act as the party’s spokesperson, and would not have the power to control the distribution of resources or party administration, he said, adding different policy committees are to be formed along the lines of the Legislative Yuan’s committees.
He said the party plans to announce the rest of its candidates for district legislative seats as well as a slate of at-large candidates by the end of the month.
Participation by non-member voters would be factored in the selection and ranking of the NPP’s at-large candidates, as candidates have to seek mandate by communicating with local constituents about the NPP’s objectives and the priority bills they would push for if elected, before the party conducts an online poll to gauge the various hopefuls’ support rates, Haung Kuo-chang said.
That would provide voters with the opportunity to directly participate in the NPP’s decisionmaking process, he said.
The NPP has a support rate of about 10 percent in Taipei and New Taipei City, which it expects could translate into votes, he said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and