Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) mayors yesterday expressed their surprise about former premier William Lai’s (賴清德) announcement yesterday that he would seek the party’s nomination for next year’s presidential election.
Until Lai’s announcement, the only known contender for the DPP’s candidacy was President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who has said that she would seek re-election.
Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲), Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) and Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅) yesterday all said that they had not expected Lai to launch a bid.
Photo: Lee Jung-ping, Taipei Times
Cheng said he was surprised and worried at the same time, as the presidential election would pose a difficult challenge for the DPP and it could only win by standing united.
A two-way primary could sow division among party members, Cheng said, adding that he hoped Lai would follow the party’s nomination mechanism and be open to a discussion.
Lin also stressed the importance of party unity.
DPP Secretary-General Luo Wei-jia (羅文嘉) said that all DPP members are allowed to run in elections.
However, all members should remember that they cannot afford to be divided, for the best interests of the nation and the party, Luo said.
Presidential Office Secretary-General Chen Chu (陳菊) said on Facebook that she hoped everyone could sit down for a conversation and find the best course for Taiwan together.
DPP Legislators Liu Chao-hao (劉櫂豪) and Mark Ho (何志偉) said that Lai’s announcement would not divide the party.
The DPP has a well-developed mechanism for presidential nominations that has been in place for years, Liu and Ho said.
The party would use its wisdom to find the best way to move forward, they said, adding that a nomination according to the existing mechanism would not create division within the party.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said that he was “not surprised at all” that Lai had announced a run.
“After he resigned from his post as premier, I thought he was sure to make some move,” Wu said. “What I did not expect was that he would move so fast.”
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS