The Tainan County commissioner race would be an easy victory for the DPP were it not for the fact that influential incumbent Mark Chen (陳唐山), has long felt resentment for the party's candidate, Su Huan-chih (蘇煥智), observers say.
"Chen will have a decisive influence on the race's outcome," said the county's former deputy commissioner, Lin Wen-ding (
Lin said opinion polls show that around 40 percent of eligible voters in the county have not yet decided how they will vote "and 20 percent of them are likely to vote for the candidate whom the commissioner supports.
"Any DPP candidate but Su, who Chen will never support, could easily win the race since the party has ruled the county for eight years and President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) secured 53 percent of the county's votes in the last presidential election," Lin said.
Lin added he was not optimistic about the "presidential card" that he says Su is playing.
"Support for the president has not turned into a bonus for Su," he said.
The DPP regards the Tainan County contest as crucial to safeguarding the president's standing.
Su's campaign manager Yan Chwen-tzo (顏純左) said that county residents respect politicians who look after the county's interests or hail from the county itself. "As a native of the county, President Chen is without doubt the best possible campaigner for Su and will certainly bring in votes," Yan said.
Yan called for a united front by DPP supporters and urged Commissioner Chen to put aside his personal resentment of Su in order to fight the forces Yan said are trying to split the party.
Reiterating that Chen would never campaign for Su, Lin said that the best strategy for Su to employ would be to counter Chen's open support for the two other candidates -- Wei and the KMT's Wu Ching-chi (
Yan said that if Mark Chen supports Wei, the independent candidate's former colleagues in the DPP could come out in Wei's support.
Frustrated with media speculation, Chen's legislative campaign manager Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) responded by saying that "as a DPP member, Chen will certainly support the DPP candidate."
Moreover, the president on Sunday succeeded in persuading Chen's top advisor in previous campaigns, Wu Nan-ho (
The infighting between Su and Chen is to seen to be to Wu's advantage and could cost Su the election.
"Wu and Su are the two major competitors in the race," said John Shen (沈榮峰), the executive director of the KMT's Tainan chapter. Shen said that the KMT would not ignore Wei's campaign although he is currently a distant third.
Shen added that unlike previous KMT candidates, Wu was capable of attracting voters from all factions, saying, that he "has never been involved in local politics" and had no enemies.
People First Party Chairman James Soong (
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
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
RSS