The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday nominated eight candidates for the legislative election on Jan. 11.
Chanting “Push the pan-blue and pan-green camps to the two sides and put the people in the middle,” the candidates joined Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), the party’s chairman, as he made a public appearance in Taipei.
Taipei City Government adviser Tsai Pi-ju (蔡壁如), one of the TPP’s founders, said that the nomination of the legislators, who have an average age of about 40, marks the beginning of the party’s efforts to change Taiwan’s political culture.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
The candidates must take responsibility and change the legislative culture, which has always been monopolized by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Tsai said, urging supporters to vote for the TPP and give Taiwan a chance to “reboot” and break free from the long-term struggle between the KMT and DPP.
The TPP legislative candidates include Indonesian-born Kimyung Keng (何景榮), an assistant professor at Feng Chia University, who is to run for a seat in Taipei’s third constituency: Zhongshan District (中山) and northern Songshan District (松山).
Former Taipei Department of Social Welfare confidential secretary Tsai Yi-fang (蔡宜芳), who ran for Kaohsiung city councilor last year, is to run for a seat in Taipei’s seventh constituency: Xinyi District (信義) and southern Songshan District (松山).
Former Taipei City Government consultant Chang Hsin-song (張幸松) is to run for Taipei’s eighth constituency: Wenshan District (文山) and southern Zhongzheng District (中正).
Z9 Digital Communications founder Wu Da-Wei (吳達偉), an internet celebrity better known by his online pseudonym Z9, is to run for a seat in New Taipei City’s seventh constituency: eastern Banciao District (板橋).
Chu Che-cheng (朱哲成) and Wang Yi-kai (王奕凱) are to run for a seat in Miaoli County’s first constituency.
Taichung’s Shangya Borough (上雅) warden Chang Jui-tsang (張睿倉) is to run for Taichung’s third constituency, and Lee Chia-ling (李佳玲), a cram school director and member of Ko’s volunteer team in Kaohsiung and Pingtung, is to run for Kaohsiung’s fifth constituency.
Independent Taipei city councilor and lawyer Hsu Li-hsin (徐立信) is to run for a seat in Taipei’s fifth constituency: Zhongzheng (中正) and Wanhua (萬華) districts.
Ko said his success in getting re-elected as Taipei Mayor last year, while competing against KMT and DPP candidates, was not really a miracle, but highlighted that most people are disappointed in political struggle between the pan-blue and pan-green camps.
“While the largest party in last year’s mayoral elections was the so-called ‘hate DPP party,’ now the largest party for next year’s election is the ‘hate [Kaohsiung Mayor] Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) party’,” he said. “Elections should be about selecting ‘the virtuous and capable person,’ but now people are choosing the least disliked, so we hope the TPP can give the people new choices and hope.”
The single-district, two-vote system passed by DPP and KMT legislators has made it difficult for other parties to win legislative seats, Ko said, adding that the TPP aims to ensure that no single party wins more than half of the legislative seats, so that smaller parties can play a key role in balancing the two main parties’ conflicts.
All parties are competing on a spectrum between pro-independence and pro-unification, but the TPP does not plan to do that, as its campaign will focus on improving national governance, Ko said.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
RSS