With less than three months to go before the year-end special municipality elections, political candidates are hoping to make every day count — shaking hands, kissing babies and making speeches.
However, with two tropical storms and a typhoon developing in the neighborhood, at least two candidates were forced to cancel campaign activities and postpone others.
The Central Weather Bureau yesterday morning issued land and sea warnings for Severe Tropical Storm Namtheun, which was churning north of Taipei and brought torrential rains.
In Sinbei City, where up to 90mm of rain fell during the day, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) canceled seven public events with local borough leaders and four temple visits.
His campaign spokesperson, Lin Chieh-yu (林芥佑), said the candidate could also cancel his campaign activities today if the weather did not improve.
“We don’t want to inconvenience the public, as most of our events take place outdoors or involve bicycling,” Lin said.
Chu’s opponent, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who turned 55 yesterday, only had one public event scheduled in the morning, which didn’t have to be canceled.
In Taipei, Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) also did not cancel any public appearances because all four took place indoors. The storms also did not put a damper on his appearance on political talk show 2100 Quan Min Kai Jiang (Speaking Your Mind at 2100).
DPP Taipei City candidate Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), however, was not so lucky. Su had to cancel three outdoor events and could postpone two more today if the weather does not improve.
“We don’t want the public to travel to our campaign events in this weather. This is our main consideration,” Su campaign spokesperson Andrew Wang (王閔生) said.
In related news, the Central Election Commission yesterday said it would hold two events to give the candidates a chance to make their policies heard on Nov. 11 and Nov. 26. The elections are scheduled for Nov. 27.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
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