Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Kaohsiung Chapter director Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) is to represent the party in the Kaohsiung mayoral election on Nov. 24, after winning the party’s primary yesterday.
KMT Organizational Development Committee director Lee Che-hua (李哲華) yesterday announced the primary result at KMT headquarters in Taipei, after two polling firms conducted three surveys from Friday to Sunday to gauge support for Han and KMT Legislator Arthur Chen (陳宜民) among Kaohsiung voters.
Lee declared Han as the winner in the primary polls, but did not disclose the actual support ratings measured by the poll.
However, a KMT member with knowledge of the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Han had garnered an average support rating of 64.8 percent, against Chen’s 35.1 percent.
The KMT is to officially nominate Han as its Kaohsiung mayoral candidate at a meeting of the party’s Central Standing Committee tomorrow.
Han, now 60, served three terms as a lawmaker from 1993 to 2002. After a failed bid to run for KMT chairman in May last year, he was elected director of the party’s Kaohsiung chapter in August last year.
Han is set to compete against Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), a five-term lawmaker, in a traditionally pan-green city that has been governed by DPP mayors since 1998.
Speaking at a news conference at KMT headquarters following the announcement, Han said that his plan is to fight poverty in Kaohsiung and boost the city’s economic development.
“Although the DPP has contributed its share to the nation’s democracy, the people of Kaohsiung do not owe the DPP anything for turning Kaohsiung into a poor and old city over its 20 years of administration,” Han said.
According to statistics from the National Treasury Administration, Kaohsiung is the most indebted administrative area in Taiwan, having accumulated NT$248 billion (US$8.2 billion) in debt as of fiscal year 2017, followed by Taipei, with a debt of NT$191 billion, and New Taipei City, with a debt of NT$135 billion.
Urging Chen to ensure a clean election, Han said he aspired to leave the political clamor to Taipei and transform Kaohsiung into Taiwan’s economic center, free from political ideologies.
In response, Chen, who received the DPP’s nomination in March, said he looked forward to engaging in a gentlemen’s fight with Han.
Additional reporting by CNA
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
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.
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
‘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