The KMT will soon contact the PFP to discuss plans to nominate a joint candidate for Kaohsiung mayor, KMT Secretary-General Lin Fong-cheng (
As the year-end Taipei and Kaohsiung mayoral races are the top issue on the KMT's political agenda, the party will try to seek consensus within the party and cooperate with the PFP in order to win, Lin said.
Lin, however, rejected the possibility of a deal in which the KMT would support a PFP candidate for Kaohsiung mayor in exchange for the PFP's backing for Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) re-election bid.
He said the KMT will only support a PFP candidate if the candidate is proven to be more suitable than the KMT's.
"The party affiliation of the candidate isn't very important. What we need to do is to find the best candidate," Lin said. "If the PFP has a candidate who is superior to the KMT's candidate, the matter is open for discussion."
While Ma's candidacy is almost certain, the KMT is still looking for the right candidate for Kaohsiung mayor. Kaohsiung-elected lawmaker Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) and Kaohsiung City Council speaker Huang Chi-chuan (黃啟川) are reportedly two possible candidates.
As for the PFP, the party's vice chairman Chang Chao-hsiung (
Other candidates favored by the PFP reportedly include former minister of justice Liao Cheng-hao (
James Chen (
According to Chen, the candidate should meet two major criteria, namely that he or she should be a Kaohsiung resident and be ethnic Taiwanese.
Chen said that by selecting a candidate who is ethnically Tai-wanese, the party hopes to avoid manipulation of the ethnic divide that he said always occurs during election campaigns.
He added that the fact Ma is an ethnic mainlander also makes it important that the party field a candidate of a different background in the south.
Under these circumstances, Wang, an ethnic mainlander, may not be a suitable candidate for Kaohsiung mayor, Chen said.
Unlike the Taipei race, the Kaohsiung election is expected to be an uphill battle for the KMT and PFP as they try to unseat DPP incumbent, Frank Hsieh (
The DPP, meanwhile, is working hard to find a candidate who is strong enough to block Ma's re-election bid in Taipei.
DPP Secretary-general Wu Nai-jen (
Even if it does not succeed in defeating Ma, the DPP will at least deal him a heavy blow, Wu said.
The DPP is reportedly considering having Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (
Other possible candidates include Central Personnel Administration Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋), Council for Hakka Affairs Chairwoman Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭) as well as senior lawmakers Shen Fu-hsiung (沈富雄) and Hung Chi-chang (洪奇昌).
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
NO CONFIDENCE MOTION? The premier said that being toppled by the legislature for defending the Constitution would be a democratic badge of honor for him Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday announced that the Cabinet would not countersign the amendments to the local revenue-sharing law passed by the Legislative Yuan last month. Cho said the decision not to countersign the amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) was made in accordance with the Constitution. “The decision aims to safeguard our Constitution,” he said. The Constitution stipulates the president shall, in accordance with law, promulgate laws and issue mandates with the countersignature of the head of the Executive Yuan, or with the countersignatures of both the head of the Executive Yuan and ministers or
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
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