Richard Chang (張承中), husband of pop singer Selina Jen (任家萱), yesterday announced on Facebook that he will run as an independent legislative candidate in Taipei’s seventh electoral district, becoming the fifth person to enter the race.
The constituency is comprised of Xinyi District (信義) and the southern part of Songshan District (松山).
Chang, a lawyer, said he is “gratified” that friends have urged him to run, including prominent members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the People First Party.
Chang said he is “running to get things done,” and would not “join a party for the sake of running.”
“I am not pan-blue, pan-green or pan-orange, but a force for the center,” he said.
KMT Legislator Alex Fai (費鴻泰), who is seeking re-election in the seventh district, said that everyone has a right to participate in elections in a democracy and he had “no special thoughts” about Chang’s candidacy.
His own record of public service and achievements in “fighting against the establishment” are well known, Tsai said.
Green Party Taiwan and Social Democratic Party Alliance legislative candidate Lu Hsin-chieh (呂欣潔) questioned Chang’s ability to address economic issues such as income inequality, inadequate protection of workers’ rights, youth impoverishment and the costs of raising a family, given that according to Chang’s own announcement he is wealthy enough to own property in Xinyi, one of Taipei’s most expensive districts.
The other candidates in the seventh district race are Taiwan Independence Party member Huang Ching-yuan (黃清原) and former KMT Taipei city councilor Yang Shih-chiu (楊實秋), who was expelled from the KMT in July over comments he made about the central government and is running as an independent.
DPP Taipei chapter head Cheng-kuo (黃承國) said the DPP considers the district a “no-nomination” race in order to give “third-force” candidates room to run.
The DPP would prefer to see non-aligned groups join forces and nominate a single candidate before it considers making one of the candidates its official partner, Huang said.
Aftershocks from a magnitude 6.2 earthquake that struck off Yilan County at 3:45pm yesterday could reach a magnitude of 5 to 5.5, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Seismological Center technical officer Chiu Chun-ta (邱俊達) told a news conference that the epicenter of the temblor was more than 100km from Taiwan. Although predicted to measure between magnitude 5 and 5.5, the aftershocks would reach an intensity of 1 on Taiwan’s 7-tier scale, which gauges the actual effect of an earthquake, he said. The earthquake lasted longer in Taipei because the city is in a basin, he said. The quake’s epicenter was about 128.9km east-southeast
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