All political parties should take up dialogue and not confrontation, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said yesterday.
Saying that no party has a majority in the new legislature following Saturday’s legislative elections, Ker urged lawmakers to use wisdom to revolve disputes, as otherwise there would likely be more political wrangling.
In Saturday’s legislative elections, the DPP secured 51 seats in the 113-seat legislature, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) 52, and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) eight. Another two seats were won by independents aligned with the KMT.
Photo: Taipei Times file
“The incoming DPP government has to face a new legislature dominated by opposition parties. However, this is not new, since our party has experienced this situation in the past. Although there will be disagreements, just as before, we will work on negotiating and resolving disputes one by one, and for parties to take up dialogue instead of confrontation in the coming legislative term,” Ker said.
Ker confirmed that Legislative Speaker You Si-kun of the DPP would seek to retain the position. You and Ker were placed in seventh and ninth spots respectively on the legislators-at-large list, of which the DPP won 13 seats based on the political party ballots.
“There are many new challenges in the legislature, and so we must impose party discipline to ensure unity for the DPP legislative caucus,” Ker said. “But we will have internal discussions to seek cooperation and forge alliances with other party members.”
The DPP and KMT have expressed willingness to work with the TPP to combine forces to push past a majority, reportedly offering the position of deputy speaker in exchange, which could be taken up by either former Taipei deputy mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) or former New Power Party legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), both taking seats as the TPP’s legislator-at-large nominees.
The KMT has planned for former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), who holds the first spot in the KMT’s legislator-at-large list, to contest the speakership position, and is likely to nominate Legislator-at-large Ko Chih-en (柯志恩) to take up the party’s seat for deputy speaker.
Voting by legislators is to take place on Feb. 1 at the start of the new legislative term, and a secret ballot will be held to select the speaker and deputy speaker positions.
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
RSS