The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will turn its attention to central Taiwan next week for a four-day celebration of its founding, despite the political turmoil in the legislature.
Several events have been scheduled in Greater Taichung, Nantou County and Changhua County from Wednesday to Saturday next week to celebrate the anniversary of its founding on Sept. 28, 1986, and to drum up support in a region seen as the key battleground in next year’s seven-in-one elections.
While the three cities and counties are governed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the DPP is optimistic that it could win any of them if recent developments in those places work in its favor.
The KMT has expressed concerns about retaining the three constituencies, with Nantou County Commissioner Lee Chao-ching (李朝卿) and Changhua County Commissioner Cho Po-yuan (卓伯源) both embroiled in corruption scandals, while Greater Taichung Mayor Jason Hu’s (胡志強) performance has been criticized.
Top DPP members are scheduled to attend the party’s weekly Central Standing Committee meeting on Wednesday, which will be held in Greater Taichung instead of Taipei, and then move on to Nantou County and Changhua County on a two-day inspection trip of DPP-governed townships, districts and villages. They will then return to Greater Taichung for a massive rally at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium, DPP spokesperson Wang min-sheng (王閔生) said yesterday.
“With the theme of ‘New green deal,’ the idea of this year’s anniversary is to show people that the DPP has always been able to have good governance both at the local level and the national level,” Wang said.
At a recent four-part forum the party conducted a review of its performance when it was in power between 2000 and 2008, and concluded that it deserved to be proud of its achievements, even though there were many areas where it could have done better.
However, the DPP does have one problem in central Taiwan — a surplus of would-be candidates for next year’s elections.
Changhua County has emerged as one of the most fiercely contested constituencies, with five DPP members showing an interest in becoming the party’s nominee for county commissioner, including Legislator Wei Ming-ku (魏明谷); former county commissioner Wong Chin-chu (翁金珠); former legislators Chiang Chao-yi (江昭儀) and Chen Chin-ting (陳進丁); and Changhua Mayor Chiu Chien-fu (邱建富).
DPP headquarters asked former party chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to mediate between the aspirants, but the rivals decided on their own to try and whittle down the list of potential candidates by commissioning several one-on-one opinion polls.
Chiang Chao-yi (江昭儀) and Chen Chin-ting (陳進丁) have agreed to conduct a telephone survey on Thursday and Friday next week, while Wei Ming-ku and Chiu Chien-fu are set for a telephone poll on Oct. 7 and 8.
Strong competition is also expected in Greater Taichung, where legislators Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) and Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌), and former presidential running mate Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) have all said they are interested in running for mayor.
In Nantou County, Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) and two former lawmakers, Lee Wen-chung (李文忠) and Tang Huo-shen (湯火聖), are expected to fight to be the party’s candidate for the post of county commissioner.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
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