Ten 10 independent tickets have been registered for petitions to become presidential and vice presidential candidates in the presidential election next year, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said.
The list unveiled by the commission on Monday shows that, apart from Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) and his running mate, Tammy Lai (賴佩霞), 18 other individuals, including Lan Hsin-chi (藍信祺), who is partnering with the head of the Gong He Party, Chou Ke-chi (周克琦), have registered for the signature drive.
Lan, an ex-convict who served 19 years in prison for a high-profile double homicide he committed in 1981, first registered to run for the presidency in 2011 after his release from jail, but his application was rejected. He again launched a signature drive for a presidential bid in 2015, but was unable to collect enough signatures.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The list also includes Cheng Tzu-tsai (鄭自才), whose running mate is Huang Sheng-feng (黃聖峰). The former is an architect who became notorious after getting involved in a conspiracy in 1970 to assassinate late president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國).
Under the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法), the independent hopefuls must submit at least 289,667 signatures, or 1.5 percent of eligible voters in the previous presidential election, before Nov. 2 to qualify as candidates in the election on Jan. 13. They also must put up a NT$1 million (US$31,248) deposit.
The results of the petitions would be announced by Nov. 14, the CEC said.
If the number of signatures collected by an independent hopeful fails to reach half of the required number, the deposit would not be returned, but it would be handed back if at least 144,834 signatures are received.
Candidates nominated by parties or independent candidates who collect enough signatures to qualify to run are required to register from Nov. 20 to 24.
The presidential candidates nominated by the three major parties are Vice President William Lai (賴清德), who chairs the Democratic Progressive Party, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).
Meanwhile, the CEC said that overseas Taiwanese who want to vote in next year’s election must first register with a household registration office in Taiwan by Dec. 4, in the absence of an absentee voting system.
Overseas Taiwanese who want to vote in the election are required to register by mail with the household registration office where they last registered their address before moving abroad, CEC Chairman Lee Chin-yung (李進勇) said.
They can download and fill out the application form at https://2020.cec.gov.tw and send it to the household registration office, which would review the application and send the result back to them or to a designated person in Taiwan.
Taiwanese living abroad are eligible to vote in the presidential election if they are at least 20 years old, hold a Republic of China passport and previously had their household information registered in Taiwan for at least six months before moving overseas, CEC Vice Chairman Chen Chao-chien (陳朝建) said.
TECH EFFECT: While Chiayi County was the oldest region in the nation, Hsinchu county and city, home of the nation’s chip industry, were the youngest, the report showed Seven of the nation’s administrative regions, encompassing 57.2 percent of Taiwan’s townships and villages, became “super-aged societies” in June, the Ministry of the Interior said in its latest report. A region is considered super-aged if 20 percent of the population is aged 65 or older. The ministry report showed that Taiwan had 4,391,744 people aged 65 or older as of June, representing 18.76 percent of the total population and an increase of 1,024,425 people compared with August 2018. In June, the nation’s elderly dependency ratio was 27.3 senior citizens per 100 working-aged people, an increase of 7.39 people over August 2018, it said. That
‘UNITED FRONT’: The married couple allegedly produced talk show videos for platforms such as Facebook and YouTube to influence Taiwan’s politics A husband and wife affiliated with the China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP) were indicted yesterday for allegedly receiving NT$74 million (US$2.32 million) from China to make radio and digital media propaganda to promote the Chinese government’s political agenda and influence the outcome of Taiwan’s elections. Chang Meng-chung (張孟崇) and his wife, Hung Wen-ting (洪文婷), allegedly received a total of NT$74 million from China between 2021 and last year to promote candidates favored by Beijing, contravening the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) and election laws, the Chiayi District Prosecutors’ Office said. The couple acted as Beijing’s propaganda mouthpiece by disparaging Hong Kong democracy activists
EARLY ARRIVALS: The first sets of HIMARS purchased from the US arrived ahead of their scheduled delivery, with troops already training on the platforms, a source said The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday said it spotted 35 Chinese military aircraft, including fighters and bombers, flying to the south of Taiwan proper on the way to exercises in the Pacific, a second consecutive day it has reported such activities. The Chinese Ministry of National Defense did not respond to a request for comment on the missions, reported just days before tomorrow’s US presidential election. The US is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself. Its arms sales to Taipei include a US$2 billion missile system announced last month. The MND said that from 9am yesterday,
A Control Yuan member yesterday said he would initiate an investigation into why the number of foreign nationals injured or killed in traffic incidents has nearly doubled in the past few years, and whether government agencies’ mechanisms were ineffective in ensuring road safety. Control Yuan member Yeh Ta-hua (葉大華) said in a news release that Taiwan has been described as a “living hell for pedestrians” and traffic safety has become an important national security issue. According to a National Audit Office report released last year, more than 780,000 foreign nationals were legally residing in Taiwan in 2019, which grew to more than
RSS