The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is to present a new main campaign message for the Nov. 24 nine-in-one elections in hopes of energizing its base, a DPP official said yesterday.
“Reform for the next generation” was the campaign message the party had rolled out in July.
However, due to a perceived lack of enthusiasm, the DPP leadership, in a bid to energize the party base, is planning to present “no backtrack from reforms” and “protect Taiwan together” as the new campaign slogans, a senior party official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Photo: Su Fang-ho, Taipei Times
The new campaign message would resonate with President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) address on Double Ten National Day, they said.
The DPP has lost ground in opinion polls, with margins narrowing even in Kaohsiung, which has for a long time reliably voted for the DPP, the official said.
In light of such developments, energizing and motivating the base tops the agenda for DPP strategists, who are increasingly looking to attack as a way to wrest control of the debate from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the official added.
The DPP legislative caucus has held a series of news conferences to slam the KMT over its alleged forgery of signatures on referendum petitions.
Presidential Office Secretary-General Chen Chu (陳菊) has also maintained high visibility on the campaign trail with hard-pressed DPP candidates, stumping for hopefuls in Miaoli County and helping to coordinate the DPP’s strategy in Yilan County.
The DPP Youth Organization yesterday launched a campaign team of young political appointees who are to act as “campaign surrogates” for DPP candidates.
The DPP governs 13 counties and cities, and mayoral elections in the special municipalities of Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung are deemed safe, DPP Secretary-General Hung Yao-fu (洪耀福) said yesterday.
However, the party faces a tough race for the commissionership in Yilan County, while Changhua County and Chiayi City are toss-ups, he said.
The DPP aims to wrest New Taipei City from the KMT and it also has high hopes for Taitung County, he added.
Asked whether the campaign surrogates could compromise the political neutrality of government administration, Hung said that all officials assisting campaigns have taken leaves of absence.
Additional reporting by Su Fang-ho
Seven of the 17 NT$10 million (US$311,604) winning receipts from the November-December uniform invoice lottery remain unclaimed as of today, the Ministry of Finance said, urging winners to redeem their prizes by May 5. The reminder comes ahead of the release of the winning numbers for the January-February lottery tomorrow. Among the unclaimed receipts was one for a NT$173 phone bill in Keelung, while others were for a NT$5,913 purchase at Costco in Taipei's Neihu District (內湖), a NT$49 purchase at a FamilyMart in New Taipei City's Tamsui District (淡水), and a NT$500 purchase at a tea shop in New Taipei City's
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
The New Taipei Metro's Sanyin Line and the eastern extension of the Taipei Metro's Tamsui-Xinyi Line (Red Line) are scheduled to begin operations in June, the National Development Council said today. The Red Line, which terminates at Xiangshan Station, would be connected by the 1.4km extension to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, while the Sanyin Line would link New Taipei City's Tucheng and Yingge stations via Sanxia District (三峽). The council gave the updates at a council meeting reviewing progress on public construction projects for this year. Taiwan's annual public infrastructure budget would remain at NT$800 billion (US$25.08 billion), with NT$97.3
TALENT SCOUTING: The university is investing substantial funds in its future to bring in the kind of researchers that would keep the college internationally competitive National Taiwan University (NTU) plans to invest NT$2 billion (US$62.6 million) to launch two programs aimed at attracting and retaining top research talent, university president Chen Wen-chang (陳文章) said yesterday. The funding would support the “Palm Grove Scholars Project,” which targets academics aged 40 to 55. Up to 20 scholars would be selected, each receiving as much as NT$10 million annually, Chen said. The initiative is designed to attract leading researchers to Taiwan and strengthen NTU’s global competitiveness by fostering a more research-friendly environment and expanding international collaboration, he said. NTU is also introducing a “Hong Hu” chair grant, which would provide Palm
RSS