The New Power Party (NPP) yesterday announced the first of its at-large legislative candidates, with party leaders promising to call for support for Amis Aboriginal activist Kawlo Iyun Pacidal to be placed at the top of the party’s at-large legislative slate.
Kawlo — who appeared in full traditional dress — was presented with a decorative belt and ceremonial gourd by Aboriginal representatives before donning the NPP’s trademark yellow campaign jacket, promising to fight for Aboriginal tribes to be recognized as independent nations and have jurisdiction over ancestral lands returned to them by the central government.
A former reporter for Taiwan Indigenous TV, Kawlo was previously involved in several Aboriginal social movements, notably helping to found the Amis Defense Alliance, which has protested development projects in traditional Amis lands along the nation’s east coast.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The party said it will nominate eight at-large candidates, with individual candidate rankings on the slate to be determined via online voting by party members and supporters.
Party founder Freddy Lim (林昶佐) said most online votes — which are also used for internal party governance and platform changes — are determined by a core group of several hundred supporters, promising to campaign for Kawlo to be placed in the slate’s top spot.
“Pushing her to the top spot is my responsibility, objective and honor,” he said, adding that promoting Aboriginal rights was one of his major goals in founding the party.
Party chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said he would do everything in his power “as an individual” to help her win the ranking vote without compromising his neutrality as party head.
He said that her placement on the party’s at-large list represented a party “commitment” to promote Aboriginal rights, promising to establish a campaign office for her in the nation’s east.
The coast guard drove away 567 Chinese boats and seized seven illegally operating in Taiwanese waters in the first six months of this year, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. They mostly operated near Kinmen and Penghu counties, resulting in fines totaling NT$1.7 million (US$52,440), it said. Three ships — two near Kinmen County and one near Penghu County — were detained in January for illegally crossing the border, while one ship each was detained near Kinmen in February and Penghu in March respectively, it said. The ship seized near Penghu in January was the Yun Ao (雲澳), detained by the CGA’s
Military photovoltaic projects have been found to have used Chinese-made devices blacklisted by the government, including Huawei Technologies Co routers, the Ministry of National Defense’s Armaments Bureau said on Thursday. An ongoing investigation has identified the illegal use of 128 current transformers, two routers and a data reader at the Hungchailin Army Base, Pinghai Navy Base and Tri-Service General Hospital’s Songshan branch, it said. The devices were manufactured in the Chinese factories of German solar energy equipment supplier SMA Solar Technology, Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Delta Electronics Co, Chinese electronics manufacturer Huawei and Taiwanese industrial PC maker Advantech Co, the bureau said. The bureau’s
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
FLU CONTINUES: Hospitals reported 101,091 visits for flu-like illnesses last week, while 68 severe cases and 16 flu-related deaths were also reported, the CDC said The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported 932 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and 64 related deaths for last week, adding that the number of people who had contracted new SARS-CoV-2 subvariants KP.2 and LB.1 has increased. The number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 increased from 815 in the previous week to 932 last week, while 90 percent of the 64 deceased were aged 65 or older, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. JN.1 was still the dominant variant among local and imported cases in the past four weeks, while KP.2 was the second-most common, Lin said. Cases with the LB.1 subvariant