Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) won the party’s chairperson by-election yesterday with nearly 69 percent of the vote over former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌).
Voting favored Chiang in all 22 counties and cities, KMT statistics showed.
In Taipei, where Hau served as mayor from 2006 to 2014, Chiang garnered nearly 60 percent of the votes, gaining about 2,600 more than Hau.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Votes from party members overseas were expected to favor Hau, but the party’s data showed that most went to Chiang.
The by-election had a low turnout of only 35.85 percent, or 124,019 people out of 345,971 who were eligible to vote.
Chiang received 84,860 votes, or 68.8 percent of the valid ballots, while Hau received 38,483. There were 676 invalid votes.
Hau issued a statement at about 6pm — before vote-counting had been completed — acknowledging defeat and congratulating Chiang on winning the election.
Hau thanked the members who voted and the volunteers who helped with the election process.
Chiang has a significant burden to bear over the next year and we hope he lives up to his promise of change, Hau said.
Hau said he has always believed, and still does, that if the KMT is strong, it can help make Taiwan a better place.
Chiang thanked supporters for voting for him and said their choice ensured that the KMT’s handover from the previous generation to the next would be successful.
Chiang said that he would institute organizational changes in the KMT and place less emphasis on party headquarters and more on local party chapters.
This would enable the party to be more connected to local residents, he said.
He promised to upgrade, improve and digitize party affairs, saying that this would be just the beginning of sweeping changes.
“The KMT from now on will be a party that is more modern and swift to respond to demands,” Chiang said.
Chiang said that he had spoken with Hau on the telephone and hopes to work with him to introduce reforms that would improve the KMT.
The by-election was to fill the vacancy left by Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), who stepped down last month after the party’s losses in the Jan. 11 presidential and legislative elections.
The KMT plans to hold an inauguration ceremony for Chiang tomorrow morning.
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
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
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