Celebrities who participated in yesterday's Kaohsiung councilor election had mixed results as some very popular candidates lost against expectations while others won.
TSU councilor candidate for Kaohsiung, Chen Ying-tsan (陳英燦), a TV anchor and news commentator at the local cable television Formosa TV, surprisingly lost his election bid.
Chen, who was one of the two candidates in Kaohsiung City's third electoral district, namely the Sanmin district (三民區), lost the election by a margin of 101 votes.
According to TSU lawmaker Cheng Chen-lung (程振隆), two factors contributed to Chen's failure: his lack of grassroots support and competition from another TSU hopeful in the same constituency.
Cheng told the Taipei Times yesterday that "Chen was seen as a strong candidate as his celebrity status should have boosted his chances but, surprisingly, the TSU's other candidate for the same area drew votes away from Chen and that's the main reason of Chen's failure."
"The TSU should have nominated only Chen, so that votes for Chen would not have been taken by the other candidate, Wu Chin-fa (吳錦發). The TSU was relatively inexperienced in estimating the vote distribution in this area," Chen said.
Apart from his votes getting siphoned off by another TSU candidate, Chen also lacked support from the so-called local "pillars," or "vote captains" who could have organized support for him.
Chen used to be a seasoned media worker and has extensive experience of working in TV and radio stations. He became a celebrity by hosting a news commentary program on Formosa TV. He is also known for his pro-independence stance.
Incumbent and veteran Kao-hsiung councilors who are very popular but failed to get re-elected include the KMT's Hung Mao-chun (洪茂俊) and Tsai Ma-fu (蔡媽福).
Hung was known for his outspokenness in the interpellation sessions of the city council. The reasons for his defeat in his bid to get re-elected a fifth time might be because their were too many nominees in his electoral district -- many of them younger and more viable competitors.
Tsai, who sought to get re-elected a fourth time yesterday, was also defeated although he did get a lot of votes.
His failure might be linked to his capricious party affiliations. Tsai was first a KMT member, but he joined the PFP after the 2000 presidential election. He then left the PFP this year and ran independently for the elections after he failed to win the PFP's nomination.
Two of the TSU's seven councilor candidates for Kaohsiung did get elected. One of them is Yeh Chin-ling (葉津鈴), who also enjoyed a lot of publicity because she hosts a radio program on a local radio station which she also owns.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS