The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday reached a breakthrough in an impasse over its presidential primary process, deciding to hold live televised platform presentations by its two candidates, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and former premier William Lai (賴清德), with negotiations to continue to finalize the date and time of for the event.
DPP Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) convened a meeting of the party’s mediation panel, which agreed to organize two or three live televised presentations for Tsai and Lai to present their policy platforms, in line with the party’s open and democratic processes, and to establish a direct channel to the public.
Representatives of both camps made proposals and shared their views at the meeting.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Taipei City Councilor Juan Chao-hsiung (阮昭雄) and two other delegates represented Tsai, while DPP Legislator Lin Chun-Hsien (林俊憲) and two other delegates represented Lai.
“After it was proposed, both sides agreed to participate in the live TV presentations, and party executives suggested that there be two to three rounds,” Luo said, adding that Lai’s camp agreed to respect the party’s decision, while Tsai’s representatives concurred, but would study the proposals further.
In the televised events, Tsai and Lai would first present their policy platforms and ideas, “then we will have a panel of experts ask them questions, which the candidates will answer, before a conclusion session,” Luo said.
Particulars of the question-and-answer sessions with the panel of experts are to be decided at the next mediation meeting, which is scheduled for tomorrow, he said.
Regarding the issue of telephone surveys of the public on support for the two candidates, Luo said: “Both sides presented their views and there was an exchange of ideas.”
“We did not reach a conclusion at today’s meeting, and it is to be discussed in the next meeting,” he said.
Lin said that besides the agreement to hold the televised presentations, it is most important for the DPP to decide on a deadline for the primary process.
“During the meeting, I raised this and other issues for discussion,” Lin said. “We believe that telephone surveys of the public and other processes for the primary should be finalized by the end of this month.”
“When this is decided, then we can deliberate other details and arrangements for the primary process,” he added.
“If no clear deadline for the primary process is known, then the candidates would be unable to prepare,” Lin said. “You have to let athletes competing in a race know how far they have to run so they can reach the finish line.”
Juan said that Tsai’s camp proposed for the polling to include mobile phones, as well as landlines, “as this is the best way to gauge public sentiment, by which the party can decide on the strongest candidate witht he best support.”
“We also suggested that the public polling ask respondents to compare other parties’ presidential candidates,” he said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching