National Taiwan University professor Cheng Hsiu-ling (鄭秀玲) is to replace New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Kawlo Iyun Pacidal after an external arbitration committee yesterday upheld the party’s decision to revoke Kawlo’s membership, the NPP said.
The party is to file an application with the Central Election Commission to replace Kawlo as soon as possible, so that Cheng can participate in the current legislative session, which began earlier this week, NPP spokesman Chen Chih-ming (陳志明) said.
Kawlo can take legal action if she disagrees with the committee’s conclusion, he added.
Photo: Peng Wan-hsin, Taipei Times
The NPP’s disciplinary committee on Aug. 6 revoked Kawlo’s membership for tarnishing the party’s image, after Green Party Taiwan found that two non-governmental organizations run by a former assistant of Kawlo had received NT$4 million (US$127,259) in subsidies from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, which the Amis legislator was supervising.
After Kawlo on Aug. 12 filed a complaint against the party’s decision, the case was delivered to an external arbitration committee for review according to party regulations.
“I believe the party decided to find me guilty before properly investigating the case, either because someone in the party hates me or because of a political feud,” she told a news conference at the Legislative Yuan before the external committee announced its decision.
After the NPP announced that it is to apply to replace her with Cheng, Kawlo reiterated that she believes the decision was based on political calculations.
She has not done anything illegal and would not allow the party to continue humiliating her, she said on Facebook.
“I am not calculative in elections and political feuds. I only serve the people,” she wrote.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
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