Former Tainan county commissioner Su Huan-chih (蘇煥智) yesterday formally announced that he is running as an independent candidate for Tainan mayor in November’s nine-in-one elections.
Su decided to run as an independent because the pan-green camp already has a nominee, but he feels that he is the best candidate given his familiarity with the city, he told a news conference in Yongkang District (永康).
Su on March 3 announced that he would leave the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and run for Taipei mayor, but yesterday said he decided to return to Tainan because the media in Taipei were focused on the competition between the DPP and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidates.
Photo: CNA
Although he originally hoped to promote local autonomy in Taipei’s districts, boroughs and communities “so that everyone could contribute to the city,” Su found that he could not get his policies across to the public due to the media’s focus on the two main parties, he said.
While there would be some voter overlap between him, DPP nominee Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲), independent candidate Hsu Chung-hsin (許忠信) and KMT nominee Kao Su-po (高思博), Su said that he could solve the city’s problems.
His time as county commissioner made him very familiar with economic and regional development, and his successes gained him many supporters, he said.
Property taxes in Tainan rose 81 percent when Premier William Lai (賴清德) was its mayor and the city collected back taxes going back years, which affected 120,000 residents, he said.
Su vowed to stop collecting back taxes, return those already paid and formally apologize to the city’s residents, he said.
Kao yesterday said that Su was more capable at municipal administration than his “apprentice” Huang, adding that Su offers city residents a better choice.
Huang mistakenly believes he could “win lying down,” but the DPP’s hold on power in Tainan is waning, Kao added.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
ANNUAL EVENT: Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in Daan Park, with an event zone operating from 10am to 6pm This year’s Taipei Floral Picnic is to be held at Daan Park today and tomorrow, featuring an exclusive Pokemon Go event, a themed food market, a coffee rave picnic area and stage performances, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said yesterday. Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in the park as attractions, with an exclusive event zone operating from 10am to 6pm, it said. Participants who complete designated tasks on-site would have a chance to receive limited-edition souvenirs, it added. People could also try the newly launched game Pokemon Pokopia in the trial area, the department said. Three PokeStops are
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
RSS