The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Central Executive Committee yesterday named DPP Legislator Chen Ou-po (陳歐珀) as the party’s candidate for Yilan County commissioner.
Chen said that being nominated marks the beginning of his responsibilities toward winning the position, adding that he would immediately demonstrate to his campaign staff his utmost sincerity in accepting the role.
He plans to consult with party members to collect their opinions and he looks forward to working with party members in the county, Chen said.
Chen was the only DPP nominee to run for Yilan County commissioner through the party’s nomination mechanism, but Acting Commissioner Derek Chen (陳金德) had also shown interest in the position, hanging billboards and speaking at the offices of 12 townships in the county over the past few months.
Derek Chen is a former chairman of CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油). He resigned from that position in August last year over a nationwide power outage. He took over as acting Yilan commissioner in November and once again came under the spotlight when he relaxed restrictions on the construction of farmhouses, giving farmers more freedoms.
The policy was seen as a direct challenge to the previous commissioner, Lin Tsung-hsien (林聰賢), who went on to head the Council of Agriculture.
The announcement last week by the DPP’s Central Election Commission that Chen Ou-po would be nominated caused an uproar, while Yilan County Council Speaker Chen Wen-chang (陳文昌) tried to block the nomination.
Chen Wen-chang suggested that the party’s central headquarters delay its nomination for the county until next month and bring Derek Chen on board in the election process.
He said the first task facing Chen Ou-po in the election would be to bring the party together, given the controversy surrounding his nomination.
Chen Ou-po said he hopes the party will stick together through successes and failures, and that there must be solidarity within the party if it is to move forward.
“I hope we can welcome the end of the year with a victory in the elections,” Chen Ou-po said.
Chen Ou-po said he welcomes input from professionals and county residents, and that he hopes to cooperate with others to solve the county’s problems.
“Let us put our energy into progressing with a new government,” he said.
Chen Wen-chang congratulated Chen Ou-po on his nomination, but added that the DPP might want to consider replacing him if the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) nominee for Yilan County commissioner, Lin Zi-miao (林姿妙), proves more popular in public opinion polls.
OVERHAUL NEEDED: The government should improve its agricultural processing capabilities and expand to new markets to limit its reliance on China, an expert said China’s ban on Taiwanese pineapples was “unsurprising,” and Taiwan should have years ago altered its produce export strategies and target customers, experts said. China on Friday abruptly suspended imports of pineapples from Taiwan, saying that it had on multiple occasions discovered “harmful biological entities” on the fruit. Calling it an “unfriendly” move, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said that 99.79 percent of the pineapples sent to China since last year have met China’s import standards. Chiao Chun (焦鈞), the author of Fruits and Politics — A Recollection of Cross-strait Agricultural Interaction Over the Past Decade (水果政治學：兩岸農業交流十年回顧與展望), said that China’s announcement is clearly targeting
‘NOT COLD ENOUGH’: Schools are disregarding Premier Su Tseng-chang’s instruction that students may wear out-of-uniform clothing to stay warm, an association said An investigative report revealed that 72.5 percent of the nation’s senior-high schools and 95.6 percent of junior-high schools punish students for wearing unapproved winter clothes in contravention of educational guidelines, lawmakers and student rights advocates said yesterday. Speaking at a news conference at the Legislative Yuan, the Taiwan Youth Association for Democracy said there is an endemic disregard for the Ministry of Education’s regulations and that private schools are more likely to contravene ministry rules. The report is a compilation of 2,856 student reports about dress code reinforcement at 425 high schools and vocational high schools, the association said. Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌)
DISSATISFACTION? If the referendums collect more than 700,000 signatures each, they would have gotten the most signatures in the shortest time, the party said The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) two referendum petitions — one on banning the importation of pork with traces of ractopamine and the other on holding referendums on the same day as national elections — had as of Thursday gathered 691,398 and 674,497 signatures respectively, the party said yesterday. If the petitions collect more than 700,000 signatures apiece, they would have garnered the most signatures in the shortest time since the Referendum Act (公民投票法) was amended in 2017, party officials said. The KMT proposed the “anti-ractopamine pork” or “food safety” referendum just days after President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) announcement on Aug. 28 last
DECADES OF INFLUENCE: Over the past 20 years, China has made inroads with Aborigines, funding political campaigns and trips, a legislator said Lawmakers have called on the National Security Bureau to investigate claims of pervasive Chinese influence among Aboriginal communities. Legislators pointed to a surge in communist propaganda and Chinese-funded projects over the past few years, which they say are aimed at infiltrating and buying political influence among Aboriginal communities. “China has for decades carried out wide-ranging ‘united front’ tactics and propaganda campaigns targeting Aborigines,” said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Ying (陳瑩), a member of the Puyuma community in Taitung County. “Now, they are influencing elections for local councilors and village chiefs, offering money for candidates to mount their campaigns, and to
RSS