Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday gave the strongest hint yet about a possible re-election bid, paving the way for a potential three-way race in the party’s chairmanship election in May.
Su, former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and former DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) are all expected to enter the race, but so far only Hsieh has publicly announced his bid.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Yunlin Agriculture Expo in Yunlin County yesterday, Su said he would not be responsible for the seven-in-one elections in November as party chairman, but “I should be given an opportunity to fight for victory.”
Asked by reporters about the meaning of “opportunity” and if it meant that he would be seeking a second term in the chairmanship election, Su said: “Was I not being clear enough?”
Tsai, who is widely seen as the favorite to win the election, has reiterated that she is still weighing her decision.
“It’s only natural for an incumbent chairman to seek re-election,” Hsieh said yesterday, adding that the potentially intense election could provide a platform for the public and party members to examine candidates’ vision for the party and the country.
The DPP officially nominated a pair of candidates for the mayoral and commissioner elections — deputy secretary-general Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) in Keelung City and former legislator Chen Kuang-fu (陳光復) in Penghu County — at the Central Executive Committee meeting in Yunlin County yesterday.
Lin ran in Keelung in the mayoral election in 2009 and the legislative election in 2012, both times losing to the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate, while Chen also ran and lost in the Penghu commissioner election in 2005.
The DPP has completed nominations in 12 of 22 constituencies in the mayoral and commissioner elections.
Meanwhile, Su has invited all five aspirants in the party’s primary for the Taipei mayoral election to a meeting in the city tomorrow to resolve escalating disputes about the party’s possible “integration” with independent candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who has been leading all the pan-green camp hopefuls in support ratings and appears to have a good chance of winning the capital.
Wellington Koo (顧立雄), one of the five DPP aspirants, initiated a three-step proposal on Tuesday, calling for the DPP to complete its primary, which would be conducted in the form of a public opinion poll, by the end of next month, and organize three debates between the DPP primary winner and specific independent candidates before the final stage of another public opinion poll to determine the pan-green camp’s candidate.
However, former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), also one of the DPP contenders, opposed the initiative, saying that the party should abide by its regulations and nominate its own candidate, as “the rules of the game” should not be swayed by one person.
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
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
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