The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday said it was cautiously optimistic about the Greater Taichung mayoral election in November, with the party’s candidate, DPP Legislator Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), leading incumbent Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) by almost 20 percentage points in the party’s latest survey.
“In a poll conducted by the DPP three days ago, Lin enjoyed a comfortable lead of 48 percent to Hu’s 29 percent. Moreover, 45.3 percent of respondents favored Lin as the winner, with only 29.6 percent picking Hu, who is seeking re-election,” DPP spokesperson Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) said.
With Lin consistently leading in a series of public opinion polls, the DPP is hopeful of victory in Greater Taichung — a key constituency that DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has called a “must-win” and a barometer of the party’s success in the seven-in-one elections.
Tsai has said the DPP is targeting wins in at least nine of the 22 mayoral and commissioner races.
In Changhua County, the DPP visited former county commissioner Huang Shih-cheng (黃石城), father of independent hopeful Huang Wen-ling (黃文玲), to explore a possible collaboration, the spokesperson said.
Whether Huang Wen-ling, a former Taiwan Solidarity Union legislator, agrees to a cooperation, the DPP has confidence in its own candidate, DPP Legislator Wei Ming-ku (魏明谷), Hsu said.
At a campaign strategy committee meeting yesterday, participants discussed the five remaining constituencies where the party has yet to announce candidates. They are Hsinchu City, Hsinchu County, Hualien County, Kinmen County and Lienchiang County.
The committee will make a final decision on whether to nominate candidates in Kinmen, Lienchiang and Hualien counties — arguably the party’s weakest constituencies — and in the predominantly Hakka constituency of Hsinchu County, as well as Hsinchu City at a committee meeting next week.
Hsu confirmed that former Hsinchu mayor Tsai Jen-chien (蔡仁堅) is interested in running for mayor again.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
RSS