http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2011/07/11/2003507950
‘HEAL THE WOUNDED LAND’:Candidates put forward a number of platforms that include calling for the early retirement of nuclear power plants and tree protection
Staff Writer, with CNA
The Green Party Taiwan (GPT) will nominate 10 candidates for the district legislators election in January, with the list to be released at the end of the month, spokesman Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) said on Saturday.
Pan said the GPT had received a 2.2 percent average voting ratio in the electoral constituencies where they had nominees during the five special municipalities elections in November, which was a “great leap forward” from the 0.6 percent the party achieved in 2008.
The party’s voting ratio reached a high of 9.7 percent in Danshui (淡水), New Taipei City (新北市), Pan said, adding that he hoped the party’s voting ratio would exceed the 5 percent benchmark during the election.
According to the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選罷法), political parties who do not garner at least 5 percent of votes for the party will not be eligible to nominate candidates for legislator-at-large seats.
Pan also said he would run for legislator in Taipei’s 7th electoral constituency against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) nominee Alex Fai (費鴻泰) to safeguard old trees and government-owned land by pushing for a motion to have a second municipal forest park -created in lieu of the Taipei Dome.
The long-stalled Taipei Dome build-operate-transfer (BOT) project began in 2006 when the city government signed a contract with Farglory to construct a 40,000-seat indoor stadium complex with commercial facilities at the abandoned Songshan Tobacco Factory site.
Pan said GPT central executive committee member Wang Chung-ming (王鐘銘) would run for the 1st constituency in New Taipei City against KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Ho Po-wen (何博文) on a platform proposing the early retirement of the First and Second Nuclear Power Plants as well as more careful development of Danhai New Town (淡海新市鎮).
GPT member Lin Chen-yang (林震洋) will run for the 3rd constituency in Greater Kaohsiung against the KMT’s Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) and the DPP’s Lin Ying-jung (林瑩蓉) advocating that the government keep its promise to shut down the Fifth Naphtha Cracker Plant “to heal the wounded land,” Pan said.
Pan also said that Tsai Shan-wen (蔡善雯), a participant in the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts dispatch worker protest, would run in the 4th constituency of Greater Taichung against KMT nominee Tsai Chin-lung (蔡錦隆) and DPP nominee Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅).
“We are currently trying to persuade former Changhua County Environmental Protection Union chief Lin Shih-hsien (林世賢) to run in the 2nd constituency in -Changhua County against the KMT’s Lin Tsang-min (林滄敏) to ensure the implementation of the anti-Kuokuang Petrochemical Park efforts,” Pan said.
The petrochemical park was initially scheduled for construction at the Dacheng Wetlands (大城濕地) in Changhua County and was expected to expand oil refining capacity and the production of chemicals such as ethylene.
However, the project was called off when President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) expressed his opposition amid growing protests from environmentalists and local residents.
Pan said the GPT would field candidates in the northeastern part of Taipei, where the controversial Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is being built, as well as the Sijhih (汐止), Yonghe (永和) and Zhonghe (中和) constituencies, where there have been many issues involving tree protection recently.
The GPT will also seek to have candidates in Hualien and Taitung in response to what has been described as improper BOT operations by corporations over the transfer of government-owned land and the building of nuclear waste dumps on Aboriginal land.
Translated by Jake Chung, Staff Writer
