Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday said that he would not take part in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential primary, ending speculation on his run for the top office next year.
“No. Amitoufo,” Wu said to reporters on the sideline of a Buddhist event in Taichung, invoking a Buddhist mantra.
It was the first time that Wu gave an unequivocal answer to a question he has been asked repeatedly while the KMT has not announced a candidate.
Photo: CNA
Wu became the second expected presidential contender to abstain from the election.
New Taipei City Mayor and KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) last month said that he would not run in the election in January next year.
Former health minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) and Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) have signed up for the KMT primary, while other KMT members with little political experience have picked up registration forms.
The registration period, which opened on April 20, is to close on May 16.
Results of the party primary are to be calculated from public opinion polls and a vote by party members. The party vote is to count for 30 percent of a candidate’s total score, while public opinion polls are to contribute 70 percent.
The opinion polls are to be conducted from June 5 to June 13, and party members are to vote on June 14.
Results are to be announced on the same day as the vote.
Party watchers and commentators also consider Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) to be a likely contender, although he has remained tight-lipped about his intentions.
Separately yesterday, reporters asked former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) whether he considers Wang a good presidential candidate.
“It is up to everybody’s judgement; do not get me involved in the propaganda,” Lee said.
Despite his reluctance to weigh in on the matter, Lee said Wang has “qualities that a leader should carry.”
Wang, thanking Lee for his positive remarks, said he that had not met with Lee for more than a year before seeing him at a conference in Taipei yesterday.
Nothing about the presidential election was discussed, Wang added.
Additional reporting by Alison Hsiao
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
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
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS