Despite claims that he would not intervene in the election for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman, People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) yesterday, on election eve, came down on the side of Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平).
Wang last night broadcast a videotaped message to a campaign rally that sealed Soong's support for Wang over his rival, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
"[In the tape, Soong] did not bring up my election bid. However, his meaning is clear. He hopes that I will win," Wang said at the legislature earlier yesterday.
PHOTOS: HSU PAI-YING AND CHOU MIN-HUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Before leaving the country for an extended vacation in the US, Soong presented Wang's campaign headquarters with the tape.
In a further hint of where PFP support lies, PFP policy research center director Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀) urged voters to support Wang in Nantou on Thursday night, while a number of PFP legislators, including Deputy Legislative Speaker Chung Jung-chi (鍾榮吉), made appearances at Wang's rally last night in Taipei.
In response, Ma, campaigning in Pingtung County yesterday, said that he relied on ideals and not on personal connections.
"The reason why [other pan-blue camp members] left the KMT was mostly because of dissatisfaction with the KMT's past affiliation with `black gold' [corruption] and policy direction," Ma said.
"Most importantly, the KMT must find its original direction, to support the Republic of China, oppose Taiwanese independence and oppose the `one country, two systems' policy. If these things can be accomplished, then some members of the PFP and the New Party would consider returning to the KMT," Ma said.
Meanwhile, the KMT yesterday released the number of eligible voters and other details of today's vote.
"I don't dare hazard a guess at the turnout in this election. However, it should be higher than last time," said KMT organization and development committee head Liao Feng-teh (
The party said 928,175 members voted in the last chairmanship election four years ago.
In that election, for which outgoing Chairman Lien Chan (
But given that this was only the second time in the party's history that party members had been able to directly elect their leader and that the election was a run-off between two highly popular party leaders, it was reasonable to expect that the voting rate would be high, Liao said.
Already, Liao said, more than 10,200 ballots from overseas party members had been cast.
The ballots from the party's 59 overseas offices will be counted today along with the rest of the votes cast by the party's million-strong voting pool.
Voting will begin at 8am and end at 4pm at 601 polling stations across the nation. While voters will not be greeted by surveillance cameras at voting stations, as the Ma camp had requested to combat voter fraud, each polling station will be supervised by up to three volunteers from both the Wang and Ma camps, in addition to regular party personnel.
Apart from voting for their next leader, party members will also be voting for regional delegates. More than 1,356 candidates, including Lien's son, Lien Sheng-wen (
According to KMT rules, elections for regional delegates are held on the same day as the chairmanship election. Delegates serve four-year terms concurrently with the term of the chairman.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
Taiwan is gearing up to celebrate the New Year at events across the country, headlined by the annual countdown and Taipei 101 fireworks display at midnight. Many of the events are to be livesteamed online. See below for lineups and links: Taipei Taipei’s New Year’s Party 2026 is to begin at 7pm and run until 1am, with the theme “Sailing to the Future.” South Korean girl group KARA is headlining the concert at Taipei City Hall Plaza, with additional performances by Amber An (安心亞), Nick Chou (周湯豪), hip-hop trio Nine One One (玖壹壹), Bii (畢書盡), girl group Genblue (幻藍小熊) and more. The festivities are to
AFTERMATH: The Taipei City Government said it received 39 minor incident reports including gas leaks, water leaks and outages, and a damaged traffic signal A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Taiwan’s northeastern coast late on Saturday, producing only two major aftershocks as of yesterday noon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The limited aftershocks contrast with last year’s major earthquake in Hualien County, as Saturday’s earthquake occurred at a greater depth in a subduction zone. Saturday’s earthquake struck at 11:05pm, with its hypocenter about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km. Shaking was felt in 17 administrative regions north of Tainan and in eastern Taiwan, reaching intensity level 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier seismic scale, the CWA said. In Hualien, the
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