Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
Placing "a" in front of the final character of a person's name indicates familiarity.
With a total of 215,168 signatures from party members -- much higher than the 16,750 needed for registration in the primary -- Ma pledged to revive the nation's economic miracle and raise the country's visibility around the world if nominated as the party's presidential candidate.
PHOTO: LIAO CHEN-HUEI, TAIPEI TIMES
"I will join forces with Taiwanese who want to emerge from their plight, and strive for a new way for future generations," Ma said before completing the registration procedures at KMT headquarters.
If elected the next president, Ma said he would create a "new Taiwan."
"I promise to create a new Taiwan that is advanced, optimistic, open, broad and developed," he said.
Surrounded by members of the "A-jeou Support Group," Ma, who announced his presidential bid immediately after resigning as KMT chairman in February following his indictment on charges of embezzling his mayoral allowance fund, said his decision to enter the presidential election was not for personal interest.
"I asked myself why choose a job that will make me extremely busy and maybe even damage my reputation ? But it'll be worth it if my decision can make a contribution to Taiwan's future," he said.
The only one
While it was expected that Ma would be the only party hopeful to claim a registration form, following Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng's (王金平) announcement that he will not enter the primary, a National Kaohsiung Normal University professor named Lei Chiao-yun (雷橋雲) surprised everyone earlier this month by also claiming a registration form.
KMT primary regulations state that candidates must register with the party by today.
The primary will be held on May 26.
After completing the registration procedure, Ma shook hands with KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) and the two promised to continue pushing for cooperation between the KMT and the People First Party (PFP).
In response to the signing of a written agreement with the PFP on Friday regarding principles for a KMT-PFP joint nomination system in the year-end legislative elections, Ma said he had always supported party cooperation and that the written agreement was the implementation of the agreement he made with PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) during their meeting in January.
The KMT signed an agreement with the PFP on Friday in return for the PFP's help in stalling a bill by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that proposed to ban individuals convicted of crimes from running for the presidency, a move clearly aimed at Ma.
Wu said the KMT was sincere in its intention to implement the agreement and would soon discuss the details with the PFP.
The KMT would be glad to help if the PFP wants to nominate their candidates under the KMT name, and the party would not exclude the possibility of nominating joint candidates, Wu added.
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
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the