Legislative by-elections for seats vacated in Taipei and Taichung are to be held on Jan. 26, the Central Election Commission said on Friday.
One election is to be held for the seat representing Taipei’s second electoral district after former legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智) on Nov. 18 gave up his seat to run for Taipei mayor.
Yao finished third in the race, which was part of the nine-in-one elections on Nov. 24.
The other election is to fill the seat representing Taichung’s fifth electoral district vacated by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taichung mayor-elect Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕), who resigned as a legislator on Nov. 20, before being elected as mayor.
Under the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), a by-election has to be held within three months of a legislative seat being vacated when more than one year remains to be served.
The next legislative elections are to be held in January 2020 alongside the presidential election.
Those seeking to run in the by-elections need to register their candidacies from Dec. 10 to 14, the commission said.
The commission did not announce when the elections to fill three other seats that were vacated in Changhua and Kinmen counties, and Tainan are to be held.
The three legislators won the county chief and mayoral races in those areas, but they have yet to quit their legislative posts and do not officially take on their new roles until Dec. 25.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I