A by-election is to be held on March 4 to fill the legislative seat vacated by Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), who was inaugurated as Nantou County commissioner on Sunday, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said on Sunday.
Under the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), an election must be held within three months of a legislative seat becoming vacant, the CEC said in a statement.
Voting in the March 4 by-election is to start at 8am and end at 4pm, the CEC said.
Photo: Liu Pin-chuan, Taipei Times
The by-election is to be officially announced today, and candidate registration is scheduled to take place from Jan. 9 to 13, it said.
Candidates for the race being speculated on by local media include Nantou County chapter head Lin Ru-bin (林儒彬), Nantou Mayor Song Huai-lin (宋懷琳) and Nantou County Councilor Yu Hao (游顥), all from the KMT.
Also being reported are Jiji Township (集集) Mayor Chen Ji-heng (陳紀衡) and Nantou County Councilor Lai Yen-hsueh (賴燕雪) from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), media reports have said.
The DPP has also reportedly encouraged Tsai Pei-hui (蔡培慧), who lost to Hsu in the commissioner election on Nov. 26, to run in the legislative by-election.
Also sworn in as local leaders on Sunday were two other legislators: Chou Chun-mi (周春米) of the DPP as Pingtung County commissioner and Ann Kao (高虹安) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) as Hsinchu mayor.
However, as both Chou and Kao were legislators-at-large — meaning that they were elected on a separate ballot in which voters choose their preferred political party, rather than individual candidates tied to electoral districts — their seats can be filled by their parties.
Chou’s seat has been filled by Chen Ching-min (陳靜敏), who previously served as a DPP lawmaker, while Kao’s was filled by TPP legislative caucus office director Chen Wan-hui (陳琬惠), the CEC said.
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
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow