The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is set to nominate its candidates for the November elections in Taipei City, Greater Tainan and Greater Kaohsiung after conducting opinion polls in the three regions.
The KMT plans to finalize its nominees for the five special municipalities by next month.
Elections for the heads of the municipalities will take place on Nov. 27 in Taipei City, Sinbei City (新北市, the upgraded Taipei County), Greater Taichung (a merger of Taichung City and Taichung County), Greater Tainan (a merger of Tainan City and Tainan County) and Greater Kaohsiung (a merger of Kaohsiung City and Kaohsiung County).
As the opinion polls in Taipei City, Greater Kaohsiung and Greater Tainan were completed, KMT spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) yesterday said that the party would now negotiate with the remaining candidates.
KMT Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) notified all participants of the poll results yesterday morning, Su said. As a mark of respect, the party only announced which candidates topped the polls.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) led the polls in Taipei City, KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) ranked first in Greater Kaohsiung. In Greater Tainan, former KMT legislators Lee Chuan-chiao (李全教) and Kuo Tien-tsai (郭添財) were neck-and-neck, Su said.
Opinion polls will be used as a reference tool for the party when selecting nominees for November’s elections, except in Sinbei City and Greater Taichung.
The party is expected to nominate Vice Premier Eric Chu (朱立倫) as the candidate in the Sinbei City race and Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) in Greater Taichung. Chu stood unopposed for the nomination.
Hu had two challengers, but Taichung County Deputy Commissioner Chang Chuang-hsi (張壯熙) dropped out and KMT Legislator Liu Chuan-chung (劉銓忠) refused to be included in the polls.
Meanwhile, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said he hoped see more Chinese and Southeast Asian students studying in Taiwan.
However, to allow Chinese students to study in Taiwan and recognize Chinese educational credentials, the legislature needs to amend the Statute Governing the Relations Between the Peoples of the Taiwan Area and Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the University Act (大學法) and the Vocational School Act (專科學校法).
No legal revisions will be needed to allow more students from Southeast Asian countries, presidential spokesperson Luo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said.
To attract them, however, Lo quoted president Ma as urging local colleges and universities to offer more courses taught in English.
Ma has asked Premier Wu Dun-yih (吳敦義) to assign a minister without portfolio to take charge of attracting more Southeast Asian students to Taiwan.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching