Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday brushed off speculation over possible vice-presidential contenders for next year’s presidential campaign.
“It’s too early to talk about such things now,” she said in response to reporters’ requests for comment on Tainan Mayor William Lai’s (賴清德) announcement that he would not take part in next year’s presidential election — as a presidential or vice-presidential candidate.
Tsai is seen as the party’s presidential hopeful, though she has yet to formally announce her intention to run.
In the past few weeks, some senior DPP figures, notably former presidential adviser Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏), have shown their support for Lai and encouraged him to run.
However, Lai on Friday said that he would not seek the party’s presidential nomination, adding on Saturday that he would not be a vice presidential candidate either, after Tsai suggested that he should play a role in the election, even if he is not the presidential candidate.
Meanwhile, Tsai yesterday vowed to win at least half of the legislative seats in next year’s legislative elections.
“As the by-elections ... are over, the DPP will now start presenting our own reform proposals for the challenges that the nation faces, and begin to prepare for the next legislative elections,” Tsai said on the sidelines of an event organized by the Thinking Taiwan Foundation in Yilan County. “Our goal is to have the force of our reforms [lead to winning] more than half of the legislative seats.”
Tsai said that the DPP would come up with solutions for every problem the nation faces, so that voters are more confident about putting the DPP in power.
“The DPP will encourage all our capable comrades to take on the task for the party,” she said. “As for those electoral districts that are more challenging for the party, we will also seek to collaborate with other political forces.”
Tsai said that although the DPP did not gain more seats in Saturday’s legislative by-elections, “the number of votes our candidates received in each electoral district has obviously grown,” adding that the party would work harder to gain the trust of voters in Miaoli and Nantou counties.
In the five districts where by-elections were held — Taichung and Miaoli, Nantou, Changhua and Pingtung counties — the DPP retained its seats in Taichung, Changhua and Pingtung, while the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) kept its seats in Miaoli and Nantou counties.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
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