Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday visited Yilan County again to focus his final campaigning efforts on the eastern county’s commissioner election.
Ma spent yesterday afternoon canvassing votes with Yilan County Commissioner Lu Kuo-hua (呂國華), who is seeking re-election. He called on voters to give Lu and the KMT another four years to develop the county.
“We hope that Lu can make good use of his experiences in the past four years and continue his policies over the next four years. Please support Lu and help him win the election,” Ma said yesterday at Lu’s campaign headquarters.
PHOTO: WANG SHAN-YEN, TAIPEI TIMES
It was Ma’s ninth visit to the county since campaigning formally began last month. The KMT took the county from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the three-in-one elections four years ago. Ma will spend the evening before the election in Yilan and Hsinchu counties to seek support for Lu and Hsinchu County commissioner candidate Chiu Ching-chun (邱鏡淳).
Ma is scheduled to visit Hualien and Taitung today. As the KMT faces a split in Hualien County, he will campaign for party candidate Tu Li-hua (杜麗華) this afternoon against independent candidate Fu Kun-chi (傅崑萁), whose KMT membership was revoked after he insisted on running in the election.
KMT Spokesman Lee Chien-jung (李建榮) yesterday continued attacking the DPP, accusing it of ignoring its own bribery record and exaggerating corruption cases linked to the KMT.
Lee also questioned the motives of senior DPP politicians campaigning for DPP candidates.
Former premiers Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) have attacked Ma while campaigning for local candidates, while former DPP chairman Yu Shyi-kun talked about running in next year’s Taipei mayoral election.
“Su and Hsieh are using the campaign activities to promote their bids for the presidential election in 2012,” Lee said.
Meanwhile, DPP Chiayi County commissioner candidate Chang Hwa-kuan (張花冠) yesterday resigned from the legislature to demonstrate her resolve to run a bribe-free race.
The DPP headquarters lauded her “courageous” decision and urged her Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rival Wong Chun-chung (翁重鈞) to follow suit.
The 55-year-old Chang announced she would leave the legislature at a press conference with Chiayi Commissioner Chen Ming-wen (陳明文).
“It is a serious duty to be the party’s nominee for Chiayi County commissioner. My mission is to safeguard the Taiwan-centric, pan-green policies and force the China-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou [馬英九] to learn to respect public opinion,” she said.
It was clear that the KMT was using vote-buying as a last ditch effort to woo votes in the remaining three days of campaigning, she said, adding that a KMT victory is a defeat for the people of Taiwan.
“We must teach Ma a lesson by disappointing the KMT at the polls,” she said.
DPP Spokesman Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) called on Wong to resign, as Chang had.
Meanwhile, Tsai urged the public to uphold democracy by refusing to sell their votes and said the Ministry of Justice must make every effort to stop vote-buying.
The DPP said that 17 KMT candidates had either been indicted or accused of buying votes ahead of Saturday’s elections.
“The last three days before the race are always the height of vote-buying. The Ministry of Justice must step up its efforts to catch the perpetrators and stop this awful election trick once and for all,” the spokesman said.
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
Taipei is to implement widespread road closures around Taipei 101 on Friday to make way for large crowds during the Double Ten National Day celebration, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. A four-minute fireworks display is to be launched from the skyscraper, along with a performance by 500 drones flying in formation above the nearby Nanshan A21 site, starting at 10pm. Vehicle restrictions would occur in phases, they said. From 5pm to 9pm, inner lanes of Songshou Road between Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 are to be closed, with only the outer lanes remaining open. Between 9pm and 9:40pm, the section is
China’s plan to deploy a new hypersonic ballistic missile at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) base near Taiwan likely targets US airbases and ships in the western Pacific, but it would also present new threats to Taiwan, defense experts said. The New York Times — citing a US Department of Defense report from last year on China’s military power — on Monday reported in an article titled “The missiles threatening Taiwan” that China has stockpiled 3,500 missiles, 1.5 times more than four years earlier. Although it is unclear how many of those missiles were targeting Taiwan, the newspaper reported
RSS