Despite recent controversies, for the first time in the nation’s history, a total of almost 20,000 people are set to choose the new director of the Taipei City Department of Labor by casting votes online or in person today.
As part of independent Taipei mayor-elect Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) “experiment in direct democracy,” a total of 19,956 people have registered to vote online for the labor department chief, while 456 people signed up to cast their votes in person, Ko’s office said.
“Those who have registered to vote online may vote from midnight on Dec. 14 until 4pm; those who registered to vote in person may bring their national ID cards, and personal seals to cast their ballots between 8am and 4pm on the same day at 24 Jilin Road, Taipei,” Ko’s office announced in a statement released yesterday. “The vote count will begin after 4pm at the polling station, and the results of online voting and in-person voting will be publicized at the same time.”
Each of the five finalists may send two observers to the poll station to monitor voting and vote counting, the statement said.
The five final candidates for the post are former Labor Affairs Council chief secretary Ho Jui-fan (賀瑞蕃), former MSIG Mingtai Insurance Union chairman Huang Cheng-tao (黃政道), National Chiao Tung University Department of Management Science assistant professor Tseng Fang-tai (曾芳代), Raged Citizens Act Now secretary-general Lai Hsiang-ling (賴香伶) and Taiwan Watch and Gem Association chairman Chang Ming-hui (張明輝).
Meanwhile, Ko is inviting members of the public to recommend or sign themselves up as a candidate for Department of Finance director.
Ko’s office said that anyone with degrees or backgrounds in related fields may sign up as candidates, or may endorse people with such degrees or backgrounds to become candidates.
The registration period started yesterday and runs until midnight on Tuesday, the office said in a statement.
All candidates would have their qualifications reviewed by a committee, and up to three people would be selected to be interviewed before the final decision is made, the statement said.
Meanwhile, Ko’s office yesterday declined to verify a report by the Chinese-language China Times that the advertising and marketing firm Ogilvy and Mather’s Greater China executive director Shenan Chuang (莊淑芬) is set to be Ko’s third deputy mayor.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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