Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Chang Tong-rong (張通榮) won the mayoral by-election in Keelung, the Keelung City Election Commission announced yesterday.
The Keelung mayoral post was left vacant after former mayor Hsu Tsai-li (許財利), a KMT member, died in February at the age of 60 from complications caused by chronic heart disease and diabetes.
According to numbers released by the Keelung City Election Commission, Chang garnered 56,115 votes, or 47.4 percent of the vote.
Chang's opponent, People First Party (PFP) Legislator Liu Wen-hsiung (
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Shy Shyh-ming (
Voter turn out for the by-election only reached 40.55 percent, the Keelung City Election Commission said.
"My victory is a result of the support from all of the city's residents. Thank you all very, very much," Chang told supporters who gathered at the headquarters for his campaign.
Prior to running for the mayoral position, Chang served as a Keelung city councilor for four terms and was twice elected speaker of the council.
Liu conceded defeat, saying: "I didn't work hard enough ? and I hope that Chang will fulfill his campaign promises."
The by-election marked Liu's third unsuccessful bid to become Keelung's mayor.
The by-election was closely watched as it served as a test case for the political alliance between the KMT and the PFP.
The two parties reached a tentative agreement in March to jointly recommend a candidate to run in the Keelung mayoral by-election based on the results of public polls.
However, Liu questioned the results of the public polls and decided to run as an independent after the KMT-PFP alliance recommended Chang as the pan-blue camp's candidate.
Both parties said yesterday that the result of the by-election would not affect future cooperation between the KMT and PFP.
However, a possible crack in the alliance occurred at Liu's campaign headquarters when some of his supporters said they would vote for DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (
Before the voting, Liu said that he would support Ma if he won the Keelung by-election.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS