The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday neither confirmed nor denied that a possible coalition with Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) in next year’s municipal and mayoral elections would require the independent mayor to refrain from supporting city councilor candidates of other parties.
According to media reports, the DPP, despite attempts to field its own candidate in the Taipei mayoral election next year, is considering renewing its alliance with Ko on condition that Ko, an independent, should withdraw his support for candidates from other parties, notably the New Power Party (NPP).
Such a condition would prevent the NPP, which is on the same side of the political spectrum as the DPP, from courting potential DPP voters, the reports said.
The DPP yesterday refused to respond to the reports, saying it had not yet finalized its election strategy.
DPP spokeswoman Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) said the party would not formally decide on election plans until March or April next year, when the DPP is to hold nationwide primary elections for mayoral and city councilor candidates.
DPP Legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智), who has announced his intention to run for Taipei mayor, said he had not heard of the reports.
The timing was “premature for deciding on an election strategy” as the DPP had not yet settled on a nomination mechanism, Yao said.
In 2014, the DPP forfeited the Taipei mayoral race to make way for Ko, who defeated his Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) opponent Sean Lien (連勝文) by a comfortable margin of 16.34 percentage points, while 27 DPP Taipei councilor candidates were elected on the back of the DPP-Ko alliance.
Ko has been leading the polls ahead of possible challengers including Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) of the DPP and New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) of the KMT. That might push the DPP to renew the alliance as it continues to put priority on preventing the KMT from winning the Taipei mayoral election while securing DPP seats in the city council.
In the 2014 elections, Ko supported NPP and Social Democratic Party candidates wherever the DPP made way for those parties, but asked supporters to vote for DPP candidates in constituencies where they went head-to-head with such “third way” parties.
DPP Secretary-General Hung Yao-fu (洪耀福) on Thursday last week said there would be little room for cooperation between the DPP and the NPP next year.
Most constituencies in Taipei elect more than one candidate to the city council in municipal elections, meaning that DPP and NPP candidates could be elected alongside each other in the same district, so collaboration is less likely in council elections, Hung said.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS