The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday announced its candidates for nine cities and counties governed by DPP members, with the party opting to nominate all nine mayors and commissioners for re-election.
The nine incumbents are: Keelung Mayor Lin Yu-chang (林右昌), Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅), Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), Changhua County Commissioner Wei Ming-ku (魏明谷), Yunlin County Commissioner Lee Chin-yung (李進勇), Chiayi Mayor Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲), Pingtung County Commissioner Pan Men-an (潘孟安) and Penghu County Commissioner Chen Kuang-fu (陳光復).
“Taiwan deserves recognition and improvement. Our [DPP] mayors and commissioners, as well as the [DPP] government and legislative caucus, are a united team,” President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
“The nomination today is just a start. We will form the best campaign team to improve Taiwan and create happiness,” Tsai said.
The nomination did not come as much of a surprise, although there was speculation that a couple of candidates — notably Twu, whose approval rating is low — might be replaced.
Reports said the party tried to persuade Twu to give up his candidacy to make way for DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋), but failed.
“The speculation and opposition against [my candidacy] suggest that I am the most competitive,” Twu said.
He added that his approval rating has rallied and should continue to climb as his nomination should quell the conflict within the DPP and ensure a coordinated campaign effort.
Doubts have also been cast on the re-election bid of Lee Chin-yung due to a rift with DPP Legislator Su Chih-feng (蘇治芬), a former Yunlin County commissioner who has considerable local influence.
Su on Monday wrote on Facebook that she would keep Lee Chin-yung at a distance and that their relationship soured immediately after he was sworn in three years ago.
Lee Chin-yung said he would talk to Su about the disagreement, while assuring that Su would assist the party in the election.
Lee Chin-yung vowed to develop public long-term care services and seek central government funding to help older people and the county, while continuing to carry out existing agricultural and “green” energy policies.
The DPP also plans to announce its nominees for four other DPP-governed municipalities: Tainan, Kaohsiung, Yilan and Chiayi County, where competition for the nomination is the most acute.
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