Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said that if he plans to run for president, he would announce a bid by early September at the latest, as he would need time to gather the required petitions to run as an independent candidate.
“Sept. 17 is the last day that [the Central Election Commission” accepts petitions” for independent candidates, he said in an interview with an online news outlet.
“We would need to set up petition stations and the process would take more than 10 days, even if we can efficiently collect the petitions. So, frankly, the deadline for such a decision is not Sept. 17, but early September,” he added.
Photo: Liao Chen-hui, Taipei Times
While Ko has not announced his intention to run for president next year, he has been included in various opinion polls, including those used to decide the candidates for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
“Up until now, I have never really wanted to run for president. I am searching for reasons not to enter the race every day,” Ko said.
However, many intellectuals, members of the middle class and people who are not particularly concerned about Taiwanese independence or unification with China are anxious about the choices they have now, he said, apparently referring to President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), who won the KMT presidential primary.
Asked about a remark by Han in an interview published yesterday about Ko not having “a central belief,” Ko said that just as most physicians hold the central belief of helping patients become healthier, politicians should regard as their central belief the long-term interests of the Taiwanese public.
“Is it possible for the ‘1992 consensus’ with its ‘one China, different interpretations’ component to be a central belief? I do not think so,” Ko said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
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