Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) yesterday said he had decided to drop out of the party’s Nantou County commissioner primary next year.
Tsai’s decision, which was announced after a meeting convened by former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), leaves the primary a battle between two former lawmakers, Lee Wen-chung (李文忠) and Tang Huo-shen (湯火聖).
“Solidarity will be important for the DPP to win in the corruption-ridden central Taiwan county, which has been suffering from a high unemployment rate, a population outflow and a declining local economy,” Tsai said.
Tsai said he would offer full support to whoever wins the nomination.
Meanwhile, former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday said she has not made a final decision on whether to run in the Taipei mayoral election next year.
Dozens of borough wards met Lu and expressed their support if she decides to run.
“Taipei is a must-win constituency if the DPP is serious about notching up a convincing victory in the seven-in-one local elections, especially the mayoral elections in the six special municipalities,” she said.
“The DPP must nominate the best candidate [in Taipei], but it doesn’t have to be me,” Lu said.
If Lu entered the party primary, her opponents could be lawyer Wellington Koo (顧立雄), who has expressed his interest in the bid, and National Taiwan University Hospital physician Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who has received strong support from DPP members.
Koo and Ko have been visiting senior DPP politicians, but neither has made official announcements about their candidacy.
Koo visited former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) yesterday afternoon at Lee’s office in Tamsui District (淡水), New Taipei City (新北市).
According to a press release issued by Koo’s office, the former president offered his encouragement and support to Koo’s possible bid.
Ko met with DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday afternoon at the DPP headquarters, but remained tight-lipped on his decision.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching