Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) yesterday passed the 30 percent threshold in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) three presidential primary polls yesterday, with an average approval rating of 46.203 percent.
Hung, who was the only contender, can now be nominated by the KMT to run in the presidential election in January next year.
She thanked her supporters during a news conference at the KMT’s headquarters in Taipei.
Photo: CNA
“This is only the first step,” Hung said, adding that she would move forward with greater confidence to secure the nomination.
Hung said she expects the KMT’s national party convention on Friday to formally pick her as the party’s presidential nominee and that a presidential election between two women would mark a new page in the development of democracy in Taiwan.
According to KMT sources, “hesitation and cowardice” by the so-called “KMT heavyweights” in failing to run in the primary drove party members to support Hung and helped her pass the primary poll threshold.
The polls were organized by three agencies — Trengo, Statinc and the United Daily News — each of which was required to collect more than 1,200 valid samples.
The polls measured Hung’s approval rating running alone and against Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson and presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文). The final results were an average of the two scenarios in the three polls.
KMT Vice Chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday said the high approval rating demonstrated that Hung had wide support among the public.
“Hung’s insistence on throwing her hat into the ring and her position on the future of our party has encouraged many supporters. We are proud of her,” Hau said.
Hau said he would convene a meeting of the nomination and auditing committee tomorrow to confirm the outcome of the polls before submitting the results to the KMT’s Central Standing Committee on Wednesday.
Hung yesterday said political views, professional ethics and age would be important considerations when selecting a running mate.
Hung added that she has a rough idea about who she wants as her vice presidential candidate, but declined to elaborate any further.
Hung, 67, said she expects her running mate to be younger than her, have the same political views, a positive moral character, impeccable professional ethics and a background that complements her own.
Meanwhile, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said he is happy about the outcome of the primary and added that Hung’s nomination would be processed according to party rules.
According to Chu, Hung’s nomination would first be confirmed by the nomination committee and then submitted to the Central Standing Committee, which meets on Wednesdays, for approval.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) would fully support whichever candidate the KMT nominates to run in the next presidential election, Presidential Office spokesman Charles Chen (陳以信) said yesterday.
“As a member of the KMT, President Ma will extend his backing to the candidate nominated by the party,” Chen said.
If nominated by the KMT, Hung would run against Tsai, who lost the 2012 presidential race to Ma.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to start construction of its 1.4-nanometer chip manufacturing facilities at the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP, 中部科學園區) as early as October, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday, citing the park administration. TSMC acquired land for the second phase of the park’s expansion in Taichung in June. Large cement, construction and facility engineering companies in central Taiwan have reportedly been receiving bids for TSMC-related projects, the report said. Supply-chain firms estimated that the business opportunities for engineering, equipment and materials supply, and back-end packaging and testing could reach as high as
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant
Democratic nations should refrain from attending China’s upcoming large-scale military parade, which Beijing could use to sow discord among democracies, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Shen You-chung (沈有忠) said. China is scheduled to stage the parade on Wednesday next week to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. The event is expected to mobilize tens of thousands of participants and prominently showcase China’s military hardware. Speaking at a symposium in Taichung on Thursday, Shen said that Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) recently met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a visit to New Delhi.
RSS