Taipei Department of Information and Tourism Commissioner Chen Su-yu (陳思宇), an ardent supporter of Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), yesterday registered to contest the legislative seat representing Taipei’s Shilin (士林) and Datong (大同) districts after former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智) resigned to focus on last month’s mayoral election.
When asked about her apparent change of heart, Chen said that she had always been prepared to run for a seat and was simply waiting for the right time to do so.
In a three-minute declaration of intent, Chen said that she was running for the position to change the political culture and the lives of Taiwanese, regardless of whether their political views align with those of the pan-green or pan-blue camp.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Faced with a difficult battle, as the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the DPP have also named candidates for the seat, Chen said that she would do her utmost to win the public’s support.
When asked whether she would seek another city government post should she not win, Chen said: “I’ll be telling Mayor Ko that I am waiting for him at the central government.”
Chen said her resignation yesterday afternoon marked the closing of her chapter in the Taipei City Government.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
DPP Taipei City Councilor Ho Chih-wei (何志偉) was nominated to run for the Shilin-Datong constituency after talks of a possible collaboration between the party and the “white force” led by Ko, an independent, did not come to pass.
The DPP-Ko cooperation is a non-issue, Ho said, adding that he had supported Ko’s policies when they were sound and opposed them when they were not.
The meeting on Thursday between President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Ko symbolized a political settlement between the two camps and continued cooperation in terms of policies, Ho said.
He would endeavor to win back the public’s trust, but would not be unduly concerned with the by-election, Ho said.
Polls show that he should receive support from at least a quarter of the people who voted for Ko in the nine-in-one elections, Ho said.
When asked about media reports that negotiations between the DPP and Ko had broken down, the Taipei mayor said: “We waited, but no one came calling.”
Ko said he was unsure whether anyone in the DPP was actually making the decisions, as the party had not acted, despite there being a lot of talk about possible cooperation.
In response, DPP by-election oversight division convener Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) said that there had never been a definitive decision to cooperate with the Ko clique.
Ho’s chances of winning would not be diminished, despite there being no collaboration, Gao said.
Additional reporting by Peng Wan-hsin
‘HONEYMOON’ IS OVER: A political science professor said that the Tsai administration’s popularity peaked after it successfully contained COVID-19, but is waning President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) and Premier Su Tseng-chang’s (蘇貞昌) approval ratings fell significantly this month in the wake of the government’s handling of the distribution of relief funds and stimulus coupons to people and businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, a poll released yesterday by the New Power Party (NPP) showed. The poll showed that 68 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with Tsai’s performance, down 8.9 percentage points from last month, while 21 percent said they disapproved of her performance. Her approval among respondents aged 20 to 29 fell 14.7 percentage points, the largest decrease when compared with other age
Food delivery provider Foodpanda had 564 consumer disputes from January to last month and failed to attend many mediation sessions with local governments nationwide, the Executive Yuan’s Consumer Protection Committee said. In a news release earlier this month, the committee said that it investigated consumer complaints and mediations for Foodpanda and rival Uber Eats during the period, when the number of delivery orders jumped due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Uber Eats had 80 consumer disputes, the committee said. Of Foodpanda’s consumer disputes, 368 resulted from delivery drivers canceling orders after customers could not be reached, 108 were related to the quality or quantity
Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), wife of Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), yesterday said that the Central Epidemic Command Center’s (CECC) claim that Taiwan had warned the WHO about possible human-to-human transmission of COVID-19 was “far-fetched.” The US on April 9 said that the WHO had put politics first and ignored Taiwan’s early warning in December last year, which the WHO denied the following day. The WHO said that it received an e-mail from Taiwanese authorities on Dec. 31 last year, but that “there was no mention in the message of human-to-human transmission.” Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC,
The Taipei City Government yesterday promised to improve its Taipei Card 3.0 application process after a city councilor said that it required applicants to provide irrelevant personal information. Taipei City Councilor Miao Po-ya (苗博雅) said that to activate the card — which can function as an EasyCard, Senior EasyCard, student card and library card, as well as provide discounts for restaurants, arts and entertainment in the city — people must provide personal information such as their passport number, occupation, education level, their spouse’s name, personal income, credit rating and health information. The city government said the system would help it digitalize and
RSS