A mock referendum by senior-high schools in Hsinchu City showed that students overwhelmingly support the hypothetical merger of Hsinchu city and county.
The mock referendum was organized by the student unions at the Hsinchu Girls’ Senior High School and the Hsinchu Senior High School.
On Friday, the student unions said that 466 students, or 12.34 percent of those enrolled in the two schools, voted.
Photo: Hung Mei-shiu, Taipei Times
The ballot asked the students to vote on whether to merge Hsinchu city and county, add Miaoli County to the hypothetical merger, resume construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮) and ban the importation of pork containing traces of ractopamine, the student unions said.
The participants had to vote in favor of or against the propositions. They could not abstain.
The proposal to consolidate Hsinchu city and county was supported by 63.47 percent of voters, while adding Miaoli County to the merger was only supported by 16 percent, the student unions said.
Resuming construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant was supported by 59.33 percent of voters, while a ban on pork imports with traces of ractopamine was supported by 54.44 percent of voters, they said.
Student votes on the issues ressemble polling by the nation’s political parties, they added.
The mock referendum was carried out to encourage student civic engagement, the unions said, adding that politicians should refrain from using the results in campaigning or advertisements.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS