Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) yesterday defeated KMT Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) by a margin of less than 1 percent in opinion polls for the party’s primary for November’s Taichung mayoral election.
In an average of three separate surveys, Lu received a support rate of 50.308 percent, while Chiang garnered 49.692 percent, KMT Organizational Development Committee director Lee Che-hua (李哲華) told reporters at the party’s headquarters in Taipei, following the unveiling of the results to the two candidate aspirants.
Asked whether the incredibly small margin could complicate the nomination process, Lee said that Lu and Chiang are mature politicians and that the nomination process would be carried out in accordance with a previous agreement.
Photo: Lee Chung-hsien, Taipei Times
“An agreement was made during a previous meeting of the party headquarters’ nomination negotiation committee, which was to make the nomination based on poll results,” Lee said.
As the party’s Taichung chapter is required to convene a meeting on the matter, the official nomination of Lu is expected to be passed and announced by the KMT Central Standing Committee after the Lunar New Year holiday next week, he said.
Days before the publication of the results, speculation emerged that Chiang was KMT Chairman Wu Den-yih’s (吳敦義) preferred Taichung mayoral candidate, because Chiang’s father-in-law had lent the party NT$30 million (US$1.02 million) to assuage the party’s financial straits.
Born in Keelung in 1961, Lu is married to former Taichung city councilor Liao Shu-chia (廖述嘉). A journalist-turned-politician, she dipped her feet into politics in 1994 when she served on the Taiwan Provincial Consultative Council and is currently serving her sixth term as a lawmaker, representing Taichung’s fifth electoral district.
“Winning the opinion polls is just one small step toward winning Taichung. The road ahead is extremely formidable, as the KMT, as an opposition party, does not enjoy as many resources,” Lu said.
However, Lu expressed her “strong confidence” in creating a miracle with the support of Taichung voters.
She also lauded Chiang for his democratic demeanor, saying that she planned to hire the rising star as her campaign director.
Chiang, who is serving his second term as a legislator, later yesterday told a news conference that he respected the results of the polls and that he would continue listening to public opinion in the hope of making Taichung a better place.
As for Lu’s job offer, Chiang said position did not matter, but pledged to help the KMT regain control of the six special municipalities.
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