The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) began negotiations with party hopefuls in Taichung yesterday in a bid to finalize the candidate for December’s special municipality election in Greater Taichung.
KMT Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) arrived in Taichung on Wednesday night and met Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強), Taichung County Council Deputy Speaker Chang Chuang-hsi (張壯熙) and KMT Legislator Chi Kuo-tung (紀國棟) separately yesterday to discuss their mayoral bids.
King said Hu likely had the best chance of being nominated by the party in Taichung as the incumbent mayor, but added that the KMT would finalize the candidate through polls if negotiation efforts fail.
PHOTO: CHAN CHAO-YANG, TAIPEI TIMES
“I am optimistic about the negotiations and I don’t think there will be a split in Taichung,” King said after holding a private meeting with Hu.
Hu said he would continue to seek the nomination, but he would respect the party’s nomination mechanism.
Both Chang and Chi stood firm in their determination to represent the party in Taichung, and called on the KMT to handle the nomination properly to prevent a pan-blue split.
KMT spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓), who accompanied King to Taichung, said he would continue negotiations in Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, and the party would announce the nominees either next month or in May.
Su declined to comment on the party’s nominations in Tainan and Kaohsiung, but there have been no prominent hopefuls to emerge in the two areas since Minister of Education Wu Ching-chi (吳清基) rejected King’s invitation to run in Tainan, while KMT Legislator Lin Yi-shih (林益世) declined to represent the party in Kaohsiung.
Su Ying-kuei (蘇盈貴), outgoing commissioner of Taipei City’s Department of Labor Affairs, yesterday revealed his intention to run in Kaohsiung. Su, a former independent legislator from Kaohsiung, said he was ready to “go with the flow.”
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
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