With only one month left before the elections for county commissioners and city mayors, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials yesterday said the party is sanguine despite recent negative news surrounding the party, since high-level officials have apologized publicly for the incidents.
The DPP yesterday held its weekly central standing committee meeting in Lukang (
Election hopefuls present at the meeting yesterday included candidate for Nantou County commissioner Tsai Huang-liang (
DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said during the meeting that the electoral districts in central Taiwan are significant for the party and if they can win in these constituencies, it will help consolidate the party's power as a ruling party.
"The DPP's nominees are very good candidates with well-rounded experience and excellent abilities. Although currently we seem to suffer from low support, we are confident that we will surprise people in the end, just like the Houston Astros and Chicago White Sox did in baseball," Su said.
The DPP had originally intended to pass a list of members for its new Commission Against Corruption during the meeting yesterday, but this was canceled in favor of election activities.
DPP Secretary-General Lee Yi-yang (
The party is still lagging slightly behind the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) candidates in Taipei County, Ilan County, Chiayi City and Penghu County, however, and must make an effort to catch up, he said.
"But one point we can be sure of is that the decline in support for us ceased after President Chen Shui-bian (
Meanwhile, during the meeting yesterday, Su and Lin accused Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (
Lin said that Hu included the years that he had studied at Oxford University -- from 1975 to 1985 -- in his governmental employee qualifications in order to receive more retirement benefits. It was serious misconduct that had been neglected by the public, Lin added.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
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
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