Tainan could get a sixth legislative seat after the Central Election Commission completes its review and mapping of electoral districts.
According to the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), legislative districts are to be reviewed and, if needed, redrawn, every 10 years.
Since the law allots one legislative seat per 300,000 residents in a county or special municipality, and Tainan has 1.9 million residents, the city should have six representatives, Tainan Bureau of Civil Affairs Director Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥) said.
The city has five lawmakers — all Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members.
“Assuming the process is above board and the commission follows the rules, Tainan will gain one more legislator,” Chen said.
Although the commission has to consult local governments that would be affected by the redrawing of electoral districts, the commission has the final say on what it will do, Chen said.
All five Tainan lawmakers welcomed the prospect of increased representation for the city.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Tainan chapter director Chuang Chan-kuei (莊占魁) also voiced support, saying that apportioning legislative seats is a national issue, but he supports a redistribution of districts in Tainan “insofar as it is practicable.”
DPP Tainan Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said the provision for redrawing districts was made by KMT legislators 10 years ago to protect a KMT seat in Kaohsiung, a pan-green stronghold.
However, when Tainan city and county were merged and upgraded into a special municipality in 2010, which resulted in a nominal increase of its population to 1.88 million, he said the KMT used “unconstitutional” motions to block a corresponding apportioning of seats in the legislature for Tainan.
“The number of legislative seats of a jurisdiction should be adjusted according to the proportional share of the population, exactly as the laws and regulations say,” Wang added.
The likelihood of having another electoral district in Tainan is expected to draw a lot of interest, especially among DPP politicians, who see it as a tantalizing opportunity in a reliable pan-green voter base.
Local DPP politicians such as Lin Yi-chin (林宜瑾), Lee Tui-chih (李退之), Tsai Wang-chuan (蔡旺詮), Chiu Li-li (邱莉莉) and Lai Hui-yuan (賴惠員), might join the race, if there is one, for a district in 2020, sources said.
Other potential DPP contenders include Chen Tsung-yen, Deputy Minister of Labor Kuo Kuo-wen (郭國文), former Tainan county commissioner Su Huan-chih (蘇煥智), Tainan City Council Acting Speaker Kuo Hsin-liang (郭信良) and Tainan City Councilor Chen Yi-chen (陳怡珍), they said.
The repercussions for creating a new electoral district could be felt as early as 2018, a political observer said.
It is highly likely that the DPP would field one of its current Tainan lawmakers as the mayoral candidate for the city in that election, creating a vacancy that would trigger a legislative by-election and lead to early political maneuvering by hopefuls for the 2020 race, observer said.
Additional reporting by Wang Chun-chung
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
HOLIDAY EXERCISE: National forest recreation areas from north to south offer travelers a wide choice of sights to connect with nature and enjoy its benefits Hiking is a good way to improve one’s health, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said, as it released a list of national forest recreation areas that travelers can visit during the Lunar New Year holiday. Taking a green shower of phytoncides in the woods could boost one’s immunity system and metabolism, agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) cited a Japanese study as saying. For people visiting northern Taiwan, Lin recommended the Dongyanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Taoyuan’s Fusing District (復興). Once an important plantation in the north, Dongyanshan (東眼山) has a number of historic monuments, he said. The area is broadly covered by
RSS