Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) on Monday announced that she would represent the Formosa Alliance in next year’s presidential elections.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was left scrambling to prevent a potential split in its voter base, calling on Lu, as well as the spiritual leader of the Taiwan Action Party Alliance and former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), to help maintain pan-green solidarity.
Lu and her vice presidential running mate, Peng Pai-hsien (彭百顯), yesterday morning registered their candidacy with the Central Election Commission in Taipei and submitted the required NT$1 million (US$32,222) guarantee.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) said that pan-green supporters were saddened to see a split in the pan-green camp.
The DPP must be cautious about how it handles Lu throwing her hat in the ring, as she has a certain amount of backing and is familiar with the party’s inner workings, Huang said.
As Lu would have the support of deep-green groups, she would present a major threat to Tsai, Huang added.
Chen has considerable support in southern Taiwan, Huang said, urging the former president to side with the DPP in the presidential and legislative elections.
Tsai’s campaign manager, Juan Chao-hsiung (阮昭雄), said that her campaign team respected Lu’s decision and was mindful of Lu’s contribution to Taiwan’s democratization.
However, Taiwan faces Beijing’s oppression on every front and its supporters must be on the same page, Juan said, citing the party’s disciplinary regulations, which stipulate that any party member who announces their intention to run without the party’s support should have their membership revoked.
DPP headquarters director Chen Cheng-te (陳正德) said that once Lu’s Formosa Alliance candidacy is formally recognized, the DPP would follow its disciplinary regulations.
DPP Chairman Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said at an event in Yunlin County that he hoped to have the chance to meet with Lu and discuss the issue, adding that it was his duty to consider what is best for Taiwan.
Additional reporting by Huang Shu-li
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