The People First Party (PFP) yesterday released a list of nominees for the year-end legislative elections, while some of those who failed to secure spots on the list considered running independent campaigns at the cost of losing their membership in the party.
PFP Cultural and Publicity Department deputy director Hsieh Kong-ping (
The party nominated incumbents Sun Ta-chien (
Party authorities said concern over overlapping vote bases was the primary reason for not nominating Hsieh. Both Hsieh and Cheng are of Hakka ethnic background, and Cheng held the advantage as an incumbent. Lu was nominated to gain support from the constituency's Minnan voters, PFP officials said.
Explaining that the party had to withhold nomination from some "excellent talents" in view of limited seats, PFP Vice Chairman Chang Chao-hsiung (
Also serving as a party spokesman, Hsieh had gained much media exposure over the past four years since the party's founding in 2000 with fierce criticism of the ruling administration in his frequent appearance on TV programs.
Hsieh yesterday said he would take a few days to decide whether he would run his own campaign and lose his party membership.
PFP caucus office manager Chen Cheng-sheng (
While saying that withdrawing his PFP membership "is too much," Chen said he "would not rule out any possibilities."
Other nominees include PFP policy research chief Chang Hsien-yao (
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
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COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai