Despite accounting for just 1.2 percent of the national voting population, Chiayi City has been of great significance in charting the country's democratic course -- and last night, for the first time in decades, a non-independent candidate won the mayoral race.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Huang Min-hui (黃敏惠) upset Mayor Chen Li-chen (陳麗貞) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
The result was even more surprising since the city's voting record has not favored the KMT for quite a while.
The major independent camp in the city, the so-called Hsu Band (許家班), was established by Hsu Shih-hsien (許世賢), a former mayor who is famous for resisting KMT authoritarian rule and fighting for democracy during the Martial Law era.
Hsu and her two daughters, Chang Po-ya (張博雅) and Chang Wen-ying (
Chen Li-chen, who served for quite a while as Chang Po-ya's deputy, was affiliated with the camp before she joined the DPP in 2003.
Chen Li-chen had hoped to win re-election by winning over the supporters of both the DPP and the Hsu Band, but she was faced with the burden of representing the DPP, said Chen Cheng-kuan (陳政寬), chairman of the local KMT chapter.
"Chen Li-chen was encumbered with the DPP's negative image from recent scandals, and the city's people think highly of the integrity of their mayor, which is Hsu's key legacy. Chen Li-chen and the DPP, however, disappointed the voters," he said.
He said that Chen Li-chen had also been hurt by the bad blood between the DPP and Chang Po-ya in recent years.
On Thursday, Chang Po-ya had asked her supporters to withdraw their backing for Chen Li-chen.
Chen Chang-kuan said that the KMT victory in Chiayi City, which used to be a hotbed of anti-KMT sentiment because of widespread killings during the 228 Incident, meant a lot to the party.
Lin Hung-chan (
It was like losing the locomotive of southern Taiwan, where people have been strongly backing the DPP for years, Lin said.
Lin, however, rejected the suggestion that the DPP had proved to be a burden for Chen Li-chen.
"Chen Li-chen was a senior civil servant for 18 years, but not a politician with a lot of election experience," Lin said. "This put her at a disadvantage when it came to defending herself and attacking her rival during the campaign."
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
RSS