Former premier Yu Shyi-kun, a former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman, announced yesterday that he will enter the race for mayor of New Taipei City (新北市), the nation’s largest municipality by population.
“If the party supports me, I am willing to fight the battle in its name,” Yu said in an informal meeting with the media in Taipei to announce his bid.
Asked whether he was too old at 65 to run for the job, Yu said he has climbed 24 mountains around Taiwan over the past five years.
Photo: Lee Hsin-fang, Taipei Times
“You can see I am physically fit enough,” he said.
Greater Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) is also 65 and former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) was 73 when he ran for the presidency in 1996, Yu said.
Yu is the second DPP politician, following former legislator Chuang Suo-hang (莊碩漢), to announce a bid for the New Taipei race. The two will likely face more rivals from within the party.
Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政), head of the DPP’s New Taipei headquarters, said he has been thinking about whether to join the race.
Meanwhile, commenting on Yu’s bid, New Taipei Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) said he welcomes distinguished people who care about the city to run for mayor.
Asked if he will seek a second term, Chu did not respond.
There have been media reports saying that Chu, 52, who previously served as vice premier, wants to run for the post of Taipei mayor, or the presidency. Chu is considered a star of his generation in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
The seven-in-one municipal elections are scheduled for December next year.
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
BETTER SERVICE QUALITY: From Nov. 10, tickets with reserved seats would only be valid for the date, train and route specified on the ticket, THSRC said Starting on Nov. 10, high-speed rail passengers with reserved seats would be required to exchange their tickets to board an earlier train. Passengers with reserved seats on a specific train are currently allowed to board earlier trains on the same day and sit in non-reserved cars, but as this is happening increasingly often, and affecting quality of travel and ticket sales, Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) announced that it would be canceling the policy on Nov. 10. It is one of several new measures launched by THSRC chairman Shih Che (史哲) to improve the quality of service, it said. The company also said
A total lunar eclipse, an astronomical event often referred to as a “blood moon,” would be visible to sky watchers in Taiwan starting just before midnight on Sunday night, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. The phenomenon is also called “blood moon” due to the reddish-orange hue it takes on as the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, completely blocking direct sunlight from reaching the lunar surface. The only light is refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere, and its red wavelengths are bent toward the moon, illuminating it in a dramatic crimson light. Describing the event as the most important astronomical phenomenon
RSS