The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday said it hoped that a victory in the Jan. 26 legislative by-election in Greater Taichung would create momentum in the same way a by-election win lifted the party in 2009.
“This will be an important election to answer President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and his Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] on their non-response to the people’s voice,” DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said in Wurih District (烏日), Greater Taichung.
The party held its weekly Central Standing Committee in Taichung, with party heavyweights attending campaign activities to show support for candidate Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱).
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
The by-election is to fill a post in the second electoral district left vacant by former Non-Partisan Solidarity Union Legislator Yen Ching-piao (顏清標), whose status was revoked after he was found guilty of corruption.
The electoral district, a traditional KMT stronghold, includes the Greater Taichung districts of Shalu (沙鹿), Longjing (龍井), Wurih (烏日), Dadu (大肚), Wufeng (霧峰) and part of Dali (大里) and is home to about 220,000 voters.
Chen, 35, will be up against Yen’s son, the 36-year-old Yen Kuan-hen (顏寬恆), who was nominated by the KMT, in what will be a tough campaign, given that the DPP has historically trailed the KMT by 20 percent in the constituency, Su said.
Chen “is basically running against Yen Ching-piao,” whose family has dominated the local political scene for decades due to its close ties to the Dajia Cheng Lan Temple (大甲鎮瀾宮) and other local connections, a local campaigner said.
However, the DPP and Chen both said they believed he could win, because Ma and the KMT were unpopular because of their performance over the past year.
“We have reason to be optimistic, despite the many factors working against us, such as vote-buying,” deputy campaign manager Li Chin-hsiang (利錦祥) said.
A low turnout rate, which has often been the case in past by-elections, would likely benefit the KMT because it has more sophisticated grassroot networks, Li said.
However, a win is still within reach and the campaign hopes that a victory will inspire the DPP, Li said.
It could have the same impact as DPP Legislator Liu Chien-kuo’s (劉建國) maiden win in a legislative election in Yunlin County, which was regarded as the catalyst for the DPP’s comeback from its dark days after losing the 2008 presidential election in a landslide, Li said.
Liu’s win sparked a series of victories in local elections and then-DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) saw her popularity soar, going on to eventually become the party’s presidential candidate.
An upset win by Chen would be seen as the first step in Su’s call for the “four changes” of “changing policies, replacing the Cabinet, replacing the legislators and replacing the president.”
If Chen won, the DPP would pull even with the KMT in Greater Taichung, with both holding four of the eight legislative seats, former premier Yu Shyi-kun said yesterday.
That was why Su and the DPP have been campaigning hard in the constituency. Su is scheduled to speak at five rallies and attend street canvassing activities this week.
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
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,