President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday assured fellow Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members that she would win next year’s presidential election and that she has a mission to safeguard Taiwan’s freedom and democracy as the party officially nominated her as its presidential candidate.
Tsai explained her two main goals, saying: “We shall win the presidency and more than half of seats in the legislature,” in a speech following her nomination at a meeting of the DPP’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) at the party’s headquarters in Taipei.
In the party’s primary, Tsai defeated her sole challenger, former premier William Lai (賴清德), with an average support rating of 35.67 percent in five public opinion polls, which gave equal weighting to landline and mobile phone interviews, compared with 27.48 percent for Lai.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“We have finished the primary process, but we will face greater challenges and heavier responsibilities in the next phase. Therefore, our party must rally together to accomplish our mission,” she said.
The DPP must become a unifying force to consolidate party machinery and the campaign team for the election to help people identify with the party’s vision for Taiwan and obtain the highest level of support from society, Tsai said.
“After winning the election, we shall safeguard Taiwan’s freedom and democracy, and we must defend the values and accomplishments in our government’s reform policies,” she said. “More importantly, we must uphold Taiwan’s sovereignty — this is the mission that we must undertake, and be successful in it.”
Support from younger people would be crucial to her re-election, she said, adding that the DPP must respond to the their needs and aspirations.
“The most critical factor is the power of the younger generation. I hope through the campaign efforts and in our future administration, we can garner more support from the ‘youth power’ and that they can build up our nation working together with the DPP,” Tsai said.
“We must thank former premier Lai for accompanying me all the way through to the end of the primary process. On this journey, Lai helped boost the morale of party members, as he gave them the opportunity to explain our government’s values and achievements to all Taiwanese,” she said.
“We must thank Lai for his display of determination and follow-through on democratic principles,” she added.
Tsai individually thanked party officials, lawmakers, CEC members, Central Standing Committee members and others for their support.
“There were some frictions during the primary ... but it is all in the past, and now is the time to rally together. We have to fully cooperate and spur on each other to take on the upcoming election battle. We must garner greater support from society, so that Taiwan can keep making strides forward,” Tsai said.
Tsai also thanked DPP Chairman Cho Yung-tai (卓榮泰) for his guidance of the party’s central leadership, through which they conducted the primary process with diligence and overcame challenges.
Cho in his speech spoke of a “main strategy” for the election.
“The central pillar for our campaign is based on winning the presidential race, which will bolster our battle to win a majority of the seats at the legislature, which is our main strategy,” he said.
“All the while we will work closely with all sectors of society for a ‘grand dialogue.’ These are the twin arrows of our party with which to gain the public’s trust,” Cho said.
The DPP’s central and local leadership, along with Tsai’s campaign team and the legislative candidates with their campaign teams, would form a “golden triangle” for the elections to ensure victory for the continued governance of the nation by Taiwanese, he said.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
RSS