Greater Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) yesterday stepped up her campaign for re-election, taking a leave of absence to start a nine-day street campaign canvassing for votes before the Nov. 29 elections.
Yesterday marked the start of the official two-week campaign period, according to Central Election Commission regulations.
Chen said that her campaign had started later than other candidates because she had been occupied with rebuilding areas damaged by the gas pipeline explosions months ago.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
Gas explosions ripped through the city’s Cianjhen (前鎮) and Lingya (苓雅) districts late on July 31 and into the early hours of Aug. 1, claiming 30 lives, injuring more than 300 and destroying 1.5km of roadways.
Despite her late start, Chen said she was certain that the public have observed what is happening and can distinguish between right and wrong.
“I have chosen to be on the side of the people, and I am certain they will reciprocate with their warm support,” she said.
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Times
Over the nine days, Chen, a member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), said she would be visiting all 28 districts and 39 major temples in the city and report directly to the public on what the city government has done over the past four years.
Aside from tending to her own elections, Chen also called on Kaohsiung voters to support DPP city councilor candidates.
Chen’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) opponent, Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興), also started canvassing for votes yesterday, standing on the intersection of Boai 1st Road and Dashun Road and waving to passing motorists. Many passers-by responded by waving back, flashing their lights or honking their horns.
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:
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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