With the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) reeling amid a string of corruption scandals involving party members, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is speeding up the process of nominating candidates for the seven-in-one local elections next year to pave the way for a return to power.
DPP officials yesterday said that following the suspension of Nantou County commissioner Lee Chao-ching (李朝卿) of the KMT due to corruption charges and an ongoing graft probe into Cho Po-chung (卓伯仲), the younger brother of Changhua County Commissioner Cho Po-yuan (卓伯源) of the KMT, the DPP has a good chance of winning the mayoral seats in Nantou and Changhua in next year’s elections.
The DPP also stands a chance of taking control in Chiayi City and Greater Taichung, which have been listed among the party’s “first-grade combat zones,” DPP officials said, adding that the party hopes to complete its list of candidates by the end of this year.
Lee, who had been detained since Nov. 30 last year on suspicion of taking bribes on public projects, was released on NT$20 million (US$668,000) bail on Tuesday last week after prosecutors indicted him on corruption charges.
He applied for reinstatement the following day, but the request was rejected by the Ministry of the Interior on Monday.
Cho Po-chung has been detained since January on suspicion of manipulating several tenders and receiving kickbacks from a contractor and, according to reports in the Chinese-language Journalist magazine, might have also embezzled donations from businesses to President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) Changhua office during Ma’s presidential campaign last year.
However, although the recent spate of graft scandals has taken a toll on the KMT, competition among DPP members seeking candidacy for county commissioner posts — particularly in Changhua, Nantou and Taichung — has also intensified
According to sources, DPP Department of Organization director Lee Wen-chung (李文忠) and DPP Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) are expected to vie for the party’s nomination to run in Nantou.
Lee Wen-chung, who represented the party in 2009 to challenge then-Nantou County commissioner Lee Chao-ching, said he has reinforced his local support base following the loss and that he is “prudently optimistic” about next year’s mayoral election.
Despite saying that he has endeavored to appeal to voters at the grassroots level in the region and is inclined to run for the mayoral post, Tsai said no formal decisions have been made.
As for the county commissioner post in Changhua, three DPP members have expressed their intention to run for the post, including Legislator Wei Ming-ku (魏明谷) and former legislators Chiang Chao-i (江昭儀) and Chen Chin-ting (陳進丁), sources said, adding that Changhua Mayor Chiu Chien-fu (邱建富) and former Changhua County commissioner Wong Chin-chu (翁金珠) are also tipped as possible candidates.
For the Taichung mayoral post, DPP legislators Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) and Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌), and former DPP secretary-general Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) could be among a group of party members who seek the nomination for the mayorship, sources said.
With regard to the party’s “first-grade combat zones,” former DPP legislator Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲) is most likely to represent the party in the mayoral election in Chiayi, sources said.
The sources added that the party headquarters would conduct negotiations with candidate hopefuls for hotly contested elective positions to seek consensus on the names of candidates, before resorting to primary elections.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
RSS