Two Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators who did not perform well in Sunday's legislative primary vote withdrew yesterday from the party's legislative primary, a sign of the declining fortunes of the once-influential New Tide faction.
Former Legislator Lin Cho-shui (
Some 60,000 DPP grassroots supporters had earlier launched a campaign to prevent 11 "DPP bandits" -- many of whom were affiliated with the faction -- from becoming legislative nominees because of their outspokenness against the party.
DPP Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), among the 11 blacklisted politicians, although she was not a member of the faction, lost to DPP Legislator Wang Shih-cheng (王世堅), by a margin of 33.87 percent in the first district of Taipei.
Hsiao said the boycott had influenced her campaign performance, adding that the sobriquet "Chinese Khim (中國琴)" had managed to "discredit" her.
"If [they] would like to discredit the New Tide faction as a `Chinese faction' and call me `Chinese Khim' because of my cooperation with the faction, shouldn't they also call President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) `Chinese Bian (中國扁)' because his trusted aide Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) also belongs to the faction?" she asked.
DPP Legislator Lin Su-shan (
Shen told a press conference he would immediately stop his campaign activity and throw his full support behind rival DPP Legislator Chen Tsiao-Long (陳朝龍).
Shen was competing against Chen in the 12th legislative district of Taipei, but only garnered 567 votes, or 32.72 percent of the votes in the district, losing to Chen, who received 1,166 votes.
Under the DPP system, the party member vote counts for 30 percent of a would-be candidate's "score," while a public poll accounts for the remaining 70 percent. Consequently, Shen could only win the election if he beat Chen in the public opinion poll by a margin of at least 15 percent.
The poll will be held between Friday and June 17.
Shen said he was "deeply moved" after learning that Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) had decided to opt out of the party's presidential primaryfor the sake of DPP unity.
Shen said he accepted the result of the vote, adding he would not have been able to prepare for the primary since his father recently passed away.
"I am worried, however, about the consequences of the infighting that occurred during the primary," he said.
"Although grassroots supporters have blamed the New Tide faction and reformists, they should not deny the devotion of this group to Taiwanese democracy," said Shen.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS