Expect the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to come out slinging mud during campaigning for the year-end local elections, Chan Chun-poh (詹春柏), secretary-general of the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said yesterday.
Chan told party lawmakers in a meeting that the DPP is expected to go all out to win the elections for county and city chiefs and councilors, as well as township chiefs, and is almost certain to try to tarnish the opposition's image by presenting their performance in the Legislative Yuan in the worst light possible.
The opposition KMT and People First Party, which control a slim joint majority in the legislature, often reject the DPP administration's bills, to the frustration of the ruling party.
Furthermore, Chan said, among the KMT candidates for county and city chiefs, six are legislators and six are ex-lawmakers. Their DPP rivals are sure to make their voting records in the Legislative Yuan issues in the campaign.
Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), a member of the KMT, also cautioned party lawmakers to think carefully about how to react to the government's various key bills in the forthcoming session. These include flood control, arms purchases, a national communications committee bill, the revision of the Organic Law for the Executive Yuan (行政院組織法) and the president's nominees for the paralyzed Control Yuan.
Wang said one misstep in dealing with these bills could provide the DPP with ammunition to use against the KMT in the year-end elections and compromise the party's chances for victory.
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
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