Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on Sunday said he already has in mind whether he will run for president next year, but has to persuade himself first.
Ko made the remarks while taking part in Jenn Lann Temple’s (鎮瀾宮) Dajia Matsu pilgrimage, which set off from the Taichung temple at 10pm on Sunday, heading toward Fengtien Temple (奉天宮) in Chiayi County’s Singang Township (新港).
The worshipers are to head back at Thursday midnight, arriving at Jenn Lann Temple on Tuesday next week.
Photo: Lin Liang-che, Taipei Times
Ko walked along with worshipers through the night and arrived at Changhua City’s Nanyao Temple (南瑤宮) at about 10am yesterday.
Some supporters called him “President Ko” along the route, but Ko said he does not like being greeted that way.
Asked whether he would run for president next year, he said: “Frankly speaking, I have the answer in my head, but I have to convince myself that the decision would be best for Taiwan — if not, I do not necessarily have to do it.”
He did not elaborate.
There are more issues to think about than the presidential election, Ko said, adding that having an election and then immediately focusing on the next election is not healthy for society.
Ko said that last year, people started asking him whether he would run in the next year’s presidential election before his mayoral term had even ended.
Additional reporting by CNA
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,