In remote Taitung County on Taiwan’s southeastern edge, the Nov. 29 nine-in-one elections are pretty much in the bag for dozens of candidates campaigning to become city and township mayors and council members, or village and borough wardens.
In contrast to the commissioner’s race, which pits Taitung County Commissioner Justin Huang (黃健庭) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) against Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Liu Chao-hao (劉櫂豪), 39 candidates for village and borough warden in the county’s 16 cities and townships are the only contenders contesting their respective polls.
Making their task even easier is an electoral provision that allows them to win with just one ballot — even if that ballot is cast by the candidates themselves.
In the county councilor contests, seven candidates are campaigning unopposed, although election rules stipulate that these hopefuls will have to win the votes of one-tenth of the total number of eligible voters in their respective constituencies, divided by the number of councilor seats for that constituency.
Among the city and township mayoral polls, only the race for the rural township of Yanping (延平) remains uncontested. The sole candidate would have to win the support of 20 percent of eligible voters to get elected as head of the 3,617-person township, according to electoral rules.
On election day, voters across the nation are to select mayors for the six special municipalities; the commissioners and mayors of 16 counties and provincial cities; 375 municipal councilors; 532 city and county councilors; 198 mayors of townships and county-controlled cities; 2,096 councilors for township and county-controlled city councils; six Aboriginal district representatives; 50 representatives for Aboriginal district councils; and 7,851 village and borough wardens.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
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Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard