Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday urged his supporters to cling to their faith and cast their party votes for the KMT, amid growing competition from other pan-blue parties.
Chu made the remarks when canvassing for votes in Changhua County yesterday morning, in response to reporters’ inquiries on how he planned to respond to growing calls for KMT supporters to give their party vote to the New Party.
“Such a practice is bound to spark huge controversy, which I believe could be avoided if everyone just supports Eric Chu,” Chu said.
Photo: Olivia Harris, Reuters
Chu also dismissed allegations made by media personality Clara Chou (周玉蔻) during a political talk show on Sunday that a senior KMT member who had served in the Cabinet was mulling launching a campaign urging pan-blue supporters to abandon Chu and vote for People First Party presidential candidate James Soong (宋楚瑜).
“I have never heard of such a plan. There are all sorts of false rumors during the final stage of an election campaign, but I believe all our supporters will vote for me,” Chu said.
There have been grave concerns that the KMT could lose chunks of the party vote to other pan-blue parties in Saturday’s legislative election, primarily due to its lackluster approval ratings and the record-high number of 18 political parties on the legislator-at-large ballot.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
To make matters worse, a number of KMT members have urged their supporters to cast their party votes for the New Party.
On Saturday, KMT Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元) listed on Facebook four reasons why pan-blue supporters should cast their party votes for the New Party, such as allowing another pan-blue party to form a legislative caucus to check the pan-green parties.
Last month, former premier Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村) of the KMT also called on supporters to cast their party votes for the New Party, calling it the “legitimate KMT.”
Legislator-at-large seats are awarded to parties that garner at least 5 percent of the party votes in the election and in proportion to the number of votes each party gains.
At a separate event in Nantou County yesterday, Chu said DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) “failure to elaborate” on her cross-strait policies has unnerved many foreign reporters and academics, as well as the “silent majority” in Taiwan.
“That is why I must urge the public to come out on Saturday and vote in favor of Eric Chu,” Chu said.
SCHEDULE: The delegation is due to meet with President Tsai Ing-wen this morning and witness the signing of an MOU on bilateral health cooperation in the afternoon US Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Alex Azar yesterday arrived in Taipei aboard a US government plane at the head of a delegation that is the highest-level visit by a US official since Washington switched diplomatic recognition to China in 1979. Azar’s flight landed at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) at 4:48pm, nearly one hour earlier than scheduled, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The apron where it landed is reserved for military aircraft, the Songshan Air Force Base Command said. The members of Azar’s delegation included HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Robert Kadlec, HHS Chief of Staff Brian
CHINESE FIGHTERS: Beijing marked the US Cabinet member’s visit by briefly sending two warplanes across the median line of the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday met with US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar in the highest-level official meeting between the two nations since 1979. “It is a true honor to be here to convey a message of strong support and friendship from [US] President [Donald] Trump to Taiwan,” Azar said during the open portion of his courtesy call to the Presidential Office, which was streamed live online before Tsai and Azar held a closed-door meeting. “Taiwan’s response to COVID-19 has been among the most successful in the world, and that is a tribute to the open, transparent,
PARTNERSHIP AND LEARNING: A Princeton University health policy researcher said that the nation would be a ‘treasure trove’ of information for the US health chief US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar on Friday said he wants to learn about Taiwan’s “incredibly effective” response to COVID-19, even though the nation did things that the US has fumbled, such as having a unified strategy and citizens willing to wear masks. Azar leads a US delegation arriving today for a three-day visit to Taiwan. They are to meet with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and health system leaders, and Azar is to give a speech to public health graduates. “The message of this trip is about Taiwan,” Azar said in an interview, deflecting a question about China.
Taiwanese-independence advocates yesterday accused former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of breaking national security laws and called on the judiciary to investigate after his statement that “China will wage a battle, which will be quick and will be the last battle for Taiwan.” Ma showed his true colors “as a mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party” in his speech on Monday when he said the “first battle will be the last,” Taiwan Republic Office (台灣國辦公室) director Chilly Chen (陳峻涵) said. “Ma is threatening Taiwanese by claiming that Beijing will launch a quick invasion of Taiwan, but that the US military will have no
RSS