Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) has a comfortable lead over Greater Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in the race for the municipality’s mayorship, a public opinion poll released yesterday showed.
The survey was conducted by the Chinese-language Apple Daily and found that Lin had a support rate of 51.4 percent, while Hu, who is seeking re-election in November, had 33.9 percent and 14.7 percent of the respondents were undecided.
Lin’s leading margin of 17.5 percent was slightly down from the 19.9 percent margin he enjoyed in the newspaper’s previous survey in February, when he led the mayor by almost 20 percent — 53.6 percent to 33.7 percent.
Photo: Chang Ching-ya, Taipei Times
The latest poll was conducted between Friday and Saturday last week, and collected 1,087 valid samples.
Many political analysts and DPP and KMT politicians see the mayoral race in Greater Taichung as the defining battleground of the upcoming seven-in-one elections, since whoever wins that constituency will probably also take the bragging rights as the overall victor in the polls, since the DPP has always dominated the nation’s south, while the KMT claims the north as its stronghold.
In related news, DPP Department of Organization director Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) confirmed yesterday that National Taiwan University journalism professor Peng Wen-cheng (彭文正) had declined the party’s offer to run as its candidate in either the Hsinchu County commissioner or the Hsinchu mayoral races.
Peng had been hesitant to enter politics after seeing what had become of Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺), saying that Jiang was former a highly renowned politics professor, but now the target of widespread dissastisfaction with his performance, Cheng quoted Peng as saying.
The DPP is trying hard to recruit Hakka candidates in the predominantly Hakka constituencies of Taoyuan County, Hsinchu County, Hsinchu City and Miaoli County, which have traditionally been the party’s weak spots.
As of now, the DPP has nominated Legislator Wu Yi-chen (吳宜臻) in Miaoli and former government information office minister Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) in Taoyuan. Overall, the party has completed its mayoral and commissioner nominations in 15 of the 22 constituencies.
If the remaining candidates are not selected before DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang’s (蘇貞昌) term ends on May 20, those aspirants’ selections will be overseen by the next chairman, Cheng Yun-pen added.
EXPANSIONIST: China deploys an average of 40 to 50 warships and coast guard vessels daily in the South China Sea, despite pledges not to militarize the region, an official said China is attempting to expand its influence across the First Island Chain and increase pressure on Japan by sending coast guard vessels into waters off of Taiwan under the pretext of maritime negotiations with Japan and the Philippines, a national security official said yesterday. China’s recent actions in the waters east of Taiwan and Japan and the Philippines’ exclusive economic zones (EEZ) are attempts to establish dominance in First Island Chain waters, said the official who declined to be named, adding that this is “expansion disguised as law enforcement.” Framing China’s actions solely as a cross-strait issue is a serious misjudgment that
Through analyzing fossil evidence, a research team at National Taiwan University (NTU) discovered the largest endemic bird to have lived in Taiwan, naming it Pavo miejue, or extinct peafowl (滅絕孔雀). The Mikado pheasant, which is printed on the back of the NT$1,000 bank note, was previously believed to be the biggest endemic bird to Taiwan. The research team’s findings suggest that Pavo miejue lived during the Pleistocene epoch tens of thousands of years ago. It is the first endemic extinct bird species discovered and formally named in Taiwan. The study was coauthored by NTU Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修),
Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is to suspend its automated Skytrain service connecting Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 starting on July 1 to facilitate connection works for the upcoming Terminal 3, the airport operator said today. Passengers and staff who need to travel between the two terminals after the suspension can instead use the Taoyuan MRT or the airport's 24-hour shuttle bus service, Taoyuan International Airport Corp said. The Taoyuan MRT Airport Line directly links the two terminals, while the shuttle buses are to operate around the clock, the company added. The Skytrain provides free transportation between the airport’s two terminals for travelers and
Taiwan ranked 42nd in terms of peacefulness among 163 countries, down five places from last year, according to this year’s Global Peace Index. With an overall score of 1.751, Taiwan dropped from 37th last year, the report published by the global Institute for Economics and Peace showed. The overall score measures a country’s level of peacefulness using 23 quantitative and qualitative indicators across three domains — ongoing domestic and international conflict, societal safety and security, and militarization. While Taiwan ranked 42nd worldwide, it was listed in ninth place among the 19 Asian-Pacific countries in the report, after New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia,
RSS