The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will officially announce its five mayoral candidates for the year-end elections today, following Sunday’s announcement that Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) would run in Sinbei City.
In a media briefing yesterday, Tsai, who was re-elected for a second term as chairperson on Sunday, said the finalized list would “help the party receive the best election result and show that the DPP is once again on the rise.”
All five candidates are expected to appear today at DPP headquarters in Taipei City after the Central Executive Committee confirms the nomination list in the afternoon.
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
The 53-year-old Tsai broke her silence on Sunday, confirming widespread speculation of her intention to run in Sinbei City, where she will be up against Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate, former vice premier Eric Chu (朱立倫).
She said her decision came “not out of personal consideration, but took into account the DPP and the country’s future targets and goals.”
Party insiders said Tsai reached the decision after a late-night meeting with DPP officials on Sunday, where she took her convincing win in the chairperson election as a sign of voter recognition of her leadership.
“The election results accelerated this decision. We needed to be sure that party members were behind where I am taking the party before we could decide to take on the [Sinbei City] elections,” Tsai said.
Chu yesterday welcomed Tsai’s participation, but raised questions on whether she would serve out the full four-year term or use the position as a springboard for a potential presidential bid in 2012 if elected.
Dismissing such concerns, Tsai said that if voters gave her a chance, she would take “full responsibility to the very end,” adding that DPP Secretary-General Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) would do the same if elected in Greater Taichung.
Party officials later said this was an issue that Chu himself would have to address, having quit his post as Taoyuan County commissioner prematurely when President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) appointed him vice premier last year.
Despite previous posts in the central government as vice premier and Council of Mainland Affairs chief under former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), this will be Tsai’s first run for public office.
A number of opinion polls released last week showed that Tsai would likely face a tough battle in Sinbei City, where Chu is highly rated, despite the low popularity of KMT Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋).
However, Tsai expressed confidence in her chances for November, saying the DPP still enjoyed widespread grassroots support from Su Tseng-chang’s (蘇貞昌) reign as Taipei County commissioner from 1997 to 2004.
On her election platform, she said that as the nation’s most-populous city, Sinbei would be the perfect platform to carry out the DPP’s “10 year political master plan,” which includes policies dealing with the environment, social issues and the economy.
Her participation in Sinbei City is widely expected to aid the DPP’s overall showing in the year-end elections.
Tsai said the party would aim for a perfect showing in the elections, which mark Taiwan’s first vote for five special municipalities after Taipei County, Taichung city and county, Tainan city and county, along with Kaohsiung city and county merge and upgrade on Dec. 25.
Meanwhile, former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday said she was not surprised Tsai had decided to run for Sinbei mayor, but added that Tsai’s opponent would pressure her to commit to a four-year term should she win.
Lu said that while it was widely known that Tsai would run, she felt regret that it had taken her so long to make the announcement.
Lu also cast doubt on Tsai’s efforts to reform the party, saying voters would judge in November’s polls whether the manner in which the party selected the candidates for the five special municipalities was the right thing to do.
Besides, Lu said, it remained to be seen whether Tsai’s victory symbolized success in party reform.
While Chu has vowed to finish the four-year term if elected, he has asked Tsai to make the same commitment. Lu yesterday said it was a question that Tsai and other party candidates must answer as their opponents will continue to ask.
Lu also expressed regret that some of the DPP and KMT candidates for the five elections were not locals. She said that while she did not know whether such a decision was good for the parties, she would have liked to see less political calculation and more focus on serving the people.
Lu criticized the KMT administration for failing to map out a well-thought-out plan before it rushed into merging and upgrading the status of the five special municipalities. She urged the candidates of the two parties to propose remedies for the problem and believed the party that presented the best solution would win the elections.
Lu made the remarks during a question-and-answer session at a press conference she called to launch her blog yesterday morning.
In response to Tsai’s announcement, KMT legislators accused her of planning to use the Sinbei mayoralty as a springboard for the presidential election.
KMT Legislator Kuo Su-chun (郭素春) said Tsai’s decision to run in the mayoral race was an “insult” to residents of the to-be-created Sinbei City because Tsai might only plan to stay there temporarily.
KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) urged Tsai to promise not to join the presidential race.
“If she refuses, that means she is simply trying to deceive voters in Sinbei City,” Wu said.
Additional reporting by Flora Wang
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
RSS