The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on Wednesday released a list of candidates for difficult electoral districts in next year’s legislative elections, moving one step closer to its goal of completing its list of candidates by this month.
The selection of Legislator Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應) for the Keelung district, former Hsinchu city councilor Cheng Hung-huei (鄭宏輝) for the Hsinchu district and Legislator Chen Ying (陳瑩), a Puyuma, for the Pingpu Aboriginal district, were passed by the DPP Central Executive Committee.
The three districts are among the 20 that the party considers “difficult,” as its candidates received less than 42.5 percent of the vote there in the 2016 legislative elections.
The party decided on its candidates for the majority of districts through primaries in late May, but there are still 26 districts where it has not yet announced candidates, and the party might field its own for those seats or cooperate with other parties, DPP spokesman Chou Chiang-chieh (周江杰) said.
Asked if the DPP would consider teaming up with the New Power Party in some areas, Cho said it was open to cooperation with “anyone and any party.”
Strategic planning for regional legislative seats must be handled with discretion, as the DPP needs to factor in the willingness of party members, he said.
“We are hoping to complete the process before the end of this month,” he added.
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
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