Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智) has won the party’s first-stage primary for the Taipei mayoral election and will enter the second stage, in which he and independent hopefuls will compete for the final candidacy of the pan-green camp, the DPP said yesterday.
DPP Secretary-General Lin Hsi-yao (林錫耀) at a press conference yesterday morning announced Yao’s victory in a public opinion poll conducted by three institutions on Tuesday night, but did not release the poll results, citing a pre-survey agreement among the three contenders.
However, Yao’s office later released the final tally, which showed that Yao received an average support rate of 30.7 percent, beating lawyer Wellington Koo’s (顧立雄) 27.1 percent and Legislator Hsu Tain-tsair’s (許添財) 24.2 percent.
Photo: Fan Pin-chao, Taipei times
The survey, which pitted each contender against the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate, former Taipei EasyCard Co chairman Sean Lien (連勝文), was the first part of a two-stage primary mechanism approved by the DPP.
Lien led every DPP hopeful in the three separate surveys — which collected 3,743 valid samples — with support rates from 38.5 percent to 41.7 percent.
For the second-stage primary, another public opinion poll to decide the final candidate is to be conducted before June 13 between Yao, National Taiwan University Hospital physician Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) — whose support rate has been leading all pan-green camp aspirants — and possibly Neil Peng (馮光遠), an award-winning screenwriter.
The DPP could organize debates between second-stage contenders before the public opinion poll is held, party spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said.
A three-member task force has established to handle the “integration talks” between Yao and Ko about a campaign platform, political values and follow-up cooperation after the primary is decided, Lin said.
The first-stage primary between DPP aspirants became a three-way race after former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) dropped out on Saturday.
After hearing the result, Yao said that he was surprised at how well he has done as an “underdog.”
Judging from past election results in Taipei, he has a chance at defeating the favored Lien as he is trailing by such a small margin with the election still six months away, Yao said.
“Again, I would have to say that the mayoral election in November will be a battle between the privileged class and ordinary citizens,” he said, referring to how he would campaign against Lien.
Koo, who finished second in the first-stage primary, said in a statement released yesterday that he pledged full support to Yao and would keep working for the people.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
RSS