Tension grew within the pan-blue camp yesterday as Chinese Na-tionalist Party (KMT) politicians demanded more candidates for the legislative election at the expense of the People First Party (PFP), while the PFP retorted that it would not back down.
The KMT also disagreed with the New Party on whether the latter's candidates should become KMT members before registering as KMT candidates.
On Thursday, KMT Legislator Hsu Chung-hsiung (
The pan-blue camp earlier settled on 65 candidates for the KMT, 42 for the PFP and between six and eight for the New Party.
Hsu's comments seemed to win backing from senior KMT figures, with party vice chairman Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) yesterday saying that the division of candidates could be discussed to maximize the pan-blue camp's chances in December.
"There is still quite some time before the legislative elections. The KMT and the PFP should review and analyze the campaign now and make appropriate adjustments ensuring that the best interests of both parties is served," he said.
Although Wang did not provide details on what the adjustments might be, PFP caucus whip Liu Wen-hsiung (
"Wang is saying this because he sees that the PFP is doing poorly in the polls," Liu said. "But if he wants to reduce the number of PFP candidacies, will that number be increased when the PFP is doing better in the polls?"
"Hsu and Wang are doing a double act -- but the KMT should not try to take advantage of the PFP when it's down," he said.
Figures in the New Party and the KMT were also at loggerheads over the recent attempt to have New Party candidates run for election under the KMT banner.
New Party Chairman Yok Mu-ming (郁慕明) earlier this week hinted that New Party candidates might register under the KMT to run for the legislature, but he was reluctant to say that candidates should first become KMT members. Wang said two days ago that he considered it necessary for New Party candidates to become party members before running for the legislature.
New Party legislative candidate and former legislator Lai Shyh-bao (
"We are willing to run as KMT candidates, but we still want to keep our independence. We are not asking to use KMT resources or its campaign machine," Lai said. "But if we become KMT members, does that mean the KMT will provide us with resources?"
Hsu, however, insisted that KMT membership was essential for New Party members if they wished to run as KMT candidates.
"They will need to register as KMT members first and follow KMT election rules. And since we already have a quota limit for candidates, we will not necessarily nominate these candidates after they come back to the KMT," Hsu said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,