Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Legislator Lo Chih-ming (
Both the Kaohsiung and Taipei mayoral elections have attracted a flood of candidates, since serving in one of the two positions is seen as a pre-condition for a presidential nomination in both the pan-blue and pan-green camps.
Lo, who also serves as TSU secretary-general, announced his candidacy at a news conference in Kaohsiung City yesterday. Lo's election bid was endorsed by TSU Chairman Shu Chin-chiang (
"Although Kaohsiung City has changed a lot under the DPP's governance, it has also suffered through the city council speakership bribery scandal and the Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp (KRTC) scandal, and has had three different mayors over the past four years. Kaohsiung citizens need a new leader to usher in a new era for them," Lo said yesterday.
Lo claimed that although a dozen people have already voiced their aspirations for the position of Kaohsiung mayor, some of them had done so to serve their own interests, and not those of Kaohsiung's citizens.
"I'm a legislator elected by Kaohsiung citizens and I know what local people's real needs are," Lo said.
Former Cabinet spokesman Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) took over as acting Kaohsiung mayor after former Kaohsiung mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) stepped down to serve as premier. However, Chen tendered his resignation as a result of the KRTC scandal, in which his father, Chen Che-nan (陳哲男), former deputy secretary-general of the Presidential Office, was allegedly involved. Former adviser to the president Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭) currently serves as acting Kaohsiung mayor.
Since former chairwoman of the Council of Labor Affairs Chen Chu (
Lo said that he hoped the TSU and the DPP could cooperate with each other in Kaohsiung as they are for next month's Chiayi City legislative by-election.
"I will accept whoever is chosen as the pan-green camp's candidate in the primary polls," Lo said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
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