Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) at a news conference in Taipei yesterday again vowed to run for Taipei mayor, adding that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) should let anyone who is interested join the election race, rather than use “fake polls” to hinder candidates.
Lu, 73, was vice president from 2000 to 2008 under then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
While the DPP often used opinion polls to select candidates, Lu questioned their credibility, saying that “fake polls” have been linked to important events across the world, including the US presidential election last year.
Photo: CNA
If the DPP is unable to recommend a candidate, it should open the race to anyone, she said, adding that participants should personally shoulder the political responsibility.
Certain people around President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) continue to push for an electoral alliance with Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) to manipulate the media, but Tsai — as DPP chairperson — should decide on the matter, because the Nov. 24 elections serve as her “mid-term exams,” Lu said.
People who supported Ko in the 2014 mayoral election should reflect on their choice, she added.
Saying that Taipei has lost its brilliance, Lu announced a series of policy goals she believes could rescue the city from further decline.
She would set up more rest areas for taxi drivers, which would lower air pollution because they would not be sitting in idle cars, Lu said.
She would reinstate three yearly subsidies for elderly residents, which Ko canceled, she said, adding that the NT$1,500 subsidy would be given at Lunar New Year, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival.
Lu would alleviate the burden of career women by setting up a network of local, part-time housekeepers so that households would not have to employ full-time cleaners or foreign workers, she said.
She also expects to reduce the city’s widening wealth gap, allow poorer children to receive a better education and beautify the city by planting more flowers, Lu said.
Free Taiwan Party Chairman Tsay Ting-kuei (蔡丁貴) on Thursday also declared his willingness to run in the mayoral election, saying he would join the race if the DPP continues its electoral alliance with Ko.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
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The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
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