New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐) yesterday said that he would leave the party to support President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) re-election bid and expressed the hope that his departure would bring change to the party.
He said that he would run for re-election in Taipei’s Zhongzheng-Wanhua electoral district as an independent and would work with like-minded people across party lines to ensure that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) does not win a legislative majority.
Lim made the announcement immediately after the NPP’s decisionmaking committee held an extraordinary meeting to discuss its strategies for next year’s presidential and legislative elections.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Before the meeting, several party members had launched an internal petition calling for the NPP to rally behind Tsai, a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member, in the presidential election.
Some NPP members believe that the party should conduct a poll to determine its stance on the presidential election, because many supporters are fans of Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), Lim said.
“Four years ago, the NPP’s stance was that it would support Tsai for the sake of Taiwan’s sovereignty and at the same time work hard to keep her administration in check. Why can we not do that this time?” he asked.
He said that for years he has tried to resolve differences within the party about its strategies, but no consensus has been reached.
As the elections are just five months away, “if I cannot convince the party, I must move forward on my own path,” Lim said.
To ensure that the KMT does not gain a majority in the legislature, he said he would also try to coordinate with all pan-green parties to build a system in which there is only one pan-green candidate in each legislative constituency.
Asked if he would join the DPP or Ko’s new party, Lim said that he had no plans to join either.
Shortly after Lim’s announcement, NPP Legislator Hung Tzu-yung (洪慈庸) revealed that she and Lim had discussed leaving the party together.
“If things come to a point where a pro-China party could return to power and I must choose, I would leave without hesitation,” she said.
However, for now she would stay with the NPP to try and make a difference, she said.
Despite having different views on the party’s strategies, NPP members share the goal of keeping a local party in power and making the NPP “the key minority” in the legislature,” Hung said.
The committee has decided to work to ensure that the nation continues to be run by a local party and discuss with friendly parties about collaborating in the legislative elections, NPP Chairman Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) said.
Chiu said that he had told Lim the committee would align with Lim’s goal, but Lim walked out of the meeting before it ended.
The NPP would not support a potential Ko bid for the presidency, because it is opposed to his cross-strait approach that “people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family,” Chiu said, adding that the chance of the NPP nominating its own presidential candidate was “very small.”
The combined effect of the monsoon, the outer rim of Typhoon Fengshen and a low-pressure system is expected to bring significant rainfall this week to various parts of the nation, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The heaviest rain is expected to occur today and tomorrow, with torrential rain expected in Keelung’s north coast, Yilan and the mountainous regions of Taipei and New Taipei City, the CWA said. Rivers could rise rapidly, and residents should stay away from riverbanks and avoid going to the mountains or engaging in water activities, it said. Scattered showers are expected today in central and
People can preregister to receive their NT$10,000 (US$325) cash distributed from the central government on Nov. 5 after President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday signed the Special Budget for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience, the Executive Yuan told a news conference last night. The special budget, passed by the Legislative Yuan on Friday last week with a cash handout budget of NT$236 billion, was officially submitted to the Executive Yuan and the Presidential Office yesterday afternoon. People can register through the official Web site at https://10000.gov.tw to have the funds deposited into their bank accounts, withdraw the funds at automated teller
COOPERATION: Taiwan is aligning closely with US strategic objectives on various matters, including China’s rare earths restrictions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan could deal with China’s tightened export controls on rare earth metals by turning to “urban mining,” a researcher said yesterday. Rare earth metals, which are used in semiconductors and other electronic components, could be recovered from industrial or electronic waste to reduce reliance on imports, National Cheng Kung University Department of Resources Engineering professor Lee Cheng-han (李政翰) said. Despite their name, rare earth elements are not actually rare — their abundance in the Earth’s crust is relatively high, but they are dispersed, making extraction and refining energy-intensive and environmentally damaging, he said, adding that many countries have opted to
PEACE AND STABILITY: Maintaining the cross-strait ‘status quo’ has long been the government’s position, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan is committed to maintaining the cross-strait “status quo” and seeks no escalation of tensions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday, rebutting a Time magazine opinion piece that described President William Lai (賴清德) as a “reckless leader.” The article, titled “The US Must Beware of Taiwan’s Reckless Leader,” was written by Lyle Goldstein, director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Defense Priorities think tank. Goldstein wrote that Taiwan is “the world’s most dangerous flashpoint” amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said that the situation in the Taiwan Strait has become less stable
RSS