Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) is not supporting any particular candidate in the next presidential election in 2012, Chen’s office said yesterday.
The office said in a statement that some media organizations had apparently misinterpreted comments by the director of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Taipei branch, Huang Ching-lin (黃慶林), who told reporters about a conversation with Chen at the Taipei Detention Center on Wednesday.
MUNICIPAL POLLS
The statement said that during Huang’s visit, he told Chen various polls indicated that former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) were among the DPP’s strongest candidates for next year’s five special municipality elections.
Huang told Chen that Su seemed interested in running for president, so it would be hard to convince him to stand in next year’s Taipei mayoral election, the statement said.
In response, Chen told Huang that most presidential candidates had served as Taipei mayor, including himself and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
However, whether Su won the Taipei mayoral election or not should not stop him from running for president, the statement quoted Chen as saying.
ASPIRANTS
The statement said Chen realized that there were many aspirants within the DPP interested in running for president, but he would not and never intended to endorse anyone in particular.
“The former president merely expressed his personal opinion on the matter and never indicated a preference for any particular person,” it said, adding that it was pure speculation by certain media outlets that Chen encouraged Su or supported him to run for president.
The office made the remarks in response to a report in yesterday’s Chinese-language China Times newspaper. The report said Chen favored Su to stand in next year’s Taipei mayoral election and that a Su victory would boost his momentum to run for the presidency.
The report said Chen accused Tsai of not being ambitious enough during the just-concluded “three-in-one” local elections earlier this month, and that former premier Yu Shyi-kun (游錫堃) would make a better DPP leader.
The former president’s office said in response that Huang had merely asked Chen whether Yu was suitable to serve as party chairman, to which Chen replied that Yu was “a candidate worth considering.”
PERSONAL SPIN
With five municipal elections approaching, the statement said, many party members would visit Chen to ask his opinion, but they were likely to give a personal spin to Chen’s remarks.
The statement urged media outlets to check with Chen’s office before running such stories to prevent unnecessary mistakes.
EVA Airways today confirmed the death of a flight attendant on Saturday upon their return to Taiwan and said an internal investigation has been launched, as criticism mounted over a social media post accusing the airline of failing to offer sufficient employee protections. According to the post, the flight attendant complained of feeling sick on board a flight, but was unable to take sick leave or access medical care. The crew member allegedly did not receive assistance from the chief purser, who failed to heed their requests for medical attention or call an ambulance once the flight landed, the post said. As sick
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
The Taichung District Court yesterday confirmed its final ruling that the marriage between teenage heir Lai (賴) and a man surnamed Hsia (夏) was legally invalid, preventing Hsia from inheriting Lai’s NT$500 million (US$16.37 million) estate. The court confirmed that Hsia chose not to appeal the civil judgement after the court handed down its ruling in June, making the decision final. In the June ruling, the court said that Lai, 18, and Hsia, 26, showed “no mutual admiration before the marriage” and that their interactions were “distant and unfamiliar.” The judge concluded that the couple lacked the “true intention of
EVA Airways, one of the leading international carriers in Taiwan, yesterday said that it was investigating reports that a cabin crew manager had ignored the condition of a sick flight attendant, who died on Saturday. The airline made the statement in response to a post circulating on social media that said that the flight attendant on an outbound flight was feeling sick and notified the cabin crew manager. Although the flight attendant grew increasingly ill on the return flight, the manager did not contact Medlink — a system that connects the aircraft to doctors on the ground for treatment advice during medical
RSS