The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) failed to elect its first-ever caucus general convener after the two candidates, Sufin Siluko (廖國棟) and Apollo Chen (陳學聖), tied in yesterday’s vote.
The two candidates received 14 votes each from 29 KMT lawmakers who showed up for the election, with one invalid vote and six lawmakers abstaining.
KMT Central Policy Committee chief executive director Alex Tsai (蔡正元), who presided over the election, said KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) has high expectations for the improvement of autonomy within the party caucus and of its “combative power,” adding that while in the past the work of the KMT caucus whip had been shared by the committee chief director — a position that had been doubled by a lawmaker until Tsai — and the caucus secretary-general, with an elected general convener, the autonomy of the caucus would be improved.
Hung last month said that the person elected by the caucus “would be the deputy executive director of the party’s Central Policy Committee,” a position that would be under the leadership of the party-assigned policy committee’s chief executive director.
According to a report by the Chinese-language United Daily News earlier this week, Sufin said that he would not take the position of committee deputy executive director if elected, but would coordinate with Tsai.
“We are still a team; it would not signify an opposing stance against the party headquarters,” he said.
According to local media, party caucus secretary-general Lin Te-fu (林德福) had Hung’s support before he said that he would not run for general convener on Wednesday, the last day of the registration for candidacy.
The United Daily News cited an unnamed KMT lawmaker as saying that with Lin opting out, Tsai’s influence would be kept outside of the caucus.
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
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
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
RSS