The People First Party (PFP) got a jump start on the year-end county commissioner races yesterday, announcing a list of five candidates and calling for pan-blue cooperation in the election.
The PFP roster has Legislator Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄) running in Keelung City, Legislator Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) for Taipei County, Legislator Hsu Yao-chang (徐耀昌) in Miaoli County and Legislator Chung Shao-ho (鍾紹和) in Kaohsiung County. Former legislator Hsieh Chang-chieh (謝章捷) will run for the Changhua County position.
"I am asking the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT], PFP and even the New Party to work together to produce a fair nomination mechanism for the county commissioner races," Chou said yesterday morning at a joint press conference at the Legislative Yuan with his fellow hopefuls.
PHOTO: CNA
The pan-blue parties should work together to support just one candidate for each county, he said.
The KMT should get its act together about an inter-party nomination procedure, Chou said, noting that the party won't decide on its candidates until May or June. That would be too late to initiate KMT-PFP cooperation to combat the DPP's candidates, he said.
Chou's plea for pan-blue unity was echoed by KMT Legislator Lee Chia-chin (李嘉進) yesterday at the Legislative Yuan. Lee is planning to run for the Taipei County commissioner's job and has scheduled a press conference today to announce his campaign.
Although the KMT has not yet begun its nomination process, Lee said he spoke with KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) at noon yesterday about his plans to seek the Taipei County job. Lee said Lien encouraged him to run.
He called on the KMT and PFP to each nominate their own candidates for the various races and then come to an agreement on one candidate for each race.
Despite the legislators' pleas, however, KMT headquarters said yesterday that there would be no change to the party's nomination timetable. The party will stick to its original timetable and then talk with the PFP, said Liao Feng-teh (廖風德), head of the KMT's organization and development committee.
The race for Taipei County commissioner heated up yesterday, with the news that Council for Hakka Affairs Chairman Luo Wen-jia (
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
RSS