Independent Taipei mayor-elect Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday announced that former New Taipei City Environmental Protection Department director Teng Chia-chi (鄧家基) is to serve as one of his deputy mayors when he is sworn in later this month.
“The first deputy mayor will be Teng, who was recommended by [Ko’s executive campaign director] Yao Li-ming (姚立明),” Ko said. “Teng has served as a [Taipei] city councilor, so he will be able to help me negotiate with councilors from the pan-blue camp. Teng is also an expert in environmental protection.”
The Taipei City Government has three deputy mayor posts.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Ko said that he never had any trouble sleeping during the campaign, but he could not fall asleep on Saturday night after his victory was confirmed.
“I could not fall asleep thinking about all the things I have to take care of now,” Ko said.
Teng confirmed later yesterday that he had accepted Ko’s invitation to serve as a deputy mayor.
He said that, having served as a Taipei city councilor affiliated with the New Party, he would work to be a bridge between the city council and the city government.
“I will discuss policies from the city government with councilors, and they can forward the needs of their respective constituencies to the city government through me,” Teng said.
“I think we will have good communication,” he added.
Separately, when speaking with the media yesterday, Yao said that besides Teng, Ko is “hunting” for people to take the other two deputy mayor posts.
“Ko is also seeking advice from Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on a candidate for deputy mayor from the pan-green camp who could help to facilitate communication between the city government and pan-green city councilors,” Yao said.
Yao said he believes the most difficult part of the job for Ko will be to communicate with the city council and the central government, “but I am confident he can do a very good job, since he was able to manage a campaign team with hundreds of people from different backgrounds so well.”
Yao also compared the campaign strategies used by Ko with those of his Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei rival Sean Lien (連勝文), saying that Lien lost because he picked the wrong campaign direction.
“From the beginning, we wanted to have a campaign that was beyond the pan-blue, pan-green political divide, but Lien’s camp wanted a campaign based on that division,” Yao said.
“Lien’s camp tried to lure us into their battle, and we tried to stay out of one,” he added.
However, Yao admitted that Ko’s campaign got sucked into the conflict when the Lien camp accused Ko of money laundering through National Taiwan University Hospital account MG149.
“We put many resources into vindicating Ko, but then I realized it was a trap and decided to pull out,” Yao said. “That is why we later downplayed it and continued with our parades and carnivals, especially when our poll results from mid-October onward showed we were steadily extending our lead.”
As for the issue of leaking information, Yao said that Ko tried to ascertain the source of the leak in his office by handing five different documents to different groups of people suspected of being informants.
“We then knew which group of people leaked the information,” Yao said.
From that point on, Ko’s campaign avoided handing classified information to the suspected leakers — unless they meant to pass on false information to the rival camp, he said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique