Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday remained confident of his re-election chances in the Taipei mayoral election despite a poll indicating a tug-of-war between him and the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) -candidate, Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌).
The result of the latest poll released by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) yesterday put Su slightly ahead of Hau, as Su received an overall support rate of 37.45 percent over Hau’s 36.84 percent.
As for voters’ expectations, 28.44 percent thought Hau would win the race, while 28.14 percent said Su would grab the victory.
The poll, conducted on Wednesday and Thursday among 1,021 Taipei residents, also showed that Su is more popular among younger voters as over 43 percent of people between the ages of 20 and 29 said they would vote for Su in the election, while 37 percent said they would support Hau.
Hau won more support from female voters with a support rate of 40.59 percent among the group, with Su receiving 32 .75 percent.
“We take each poll as references, but poll results won’t affect our election strategies. I am confident about the election outlook and we will work hard to seek the victory,” he said at Taipei City Hall.
Commenting on the poll results, Su acknowledged that he should make greater efforts to attract more support from female voters, while defending his deep understanding of women’s issues as a father of three daughters.
“I practically live in a female dorm and I know a lot about women’s issues. I will try my best to address the issues and meet the expectations of female voters,” he said.
The five special municipality elections will be held on Nov. 27 in Taipei City, Taipei County (to be renamed Sinbei City after it is upgraded), the greater Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung areas.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei MRT is to begin accepting mobile payment services in the fall, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said on Saturday. When the company finishes the installation of new payment units at ticketing gates in October, MRT passengers can use credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, the operator said. In addition, the MRT would also provide QR payment codes — which would be compatible with Line Pay, Jkopay, iPass Money, PXPay Plus, EasyWallet, iCash Pay, Taiwan Pay and Taishin Pay — to access the railway system. Currently, passengers can access the Taipei MRT by buying a single-journey token or using EasyCard,
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