Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) yesterday returned to work at the Kaohsiung City Government and apologized to the city’s residents for not attending to his mayoral duties during his presidential campaign.
“I am sorry for having been away from Kaohsiung for three full months. I am sorry that I have not been there with you,” Han told a news conference at the Kaohsiung City Government.
Han on Oct. 16 last year took a leave of absence to run as the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate in the presidential election, which on Saturday culminated with him losing to President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) by more than 2.6 million votes.
Photo: Chang Chung-i, Taipei Times
Although he had been on leave, the city government continued to carry out its duties, he said.
His priority would be to ensure that city residents experience a good Lunar New Year holiday, Han said, adding that he would keep the city safe and clean, and its consumer prices stable.
Asked about a post-election international news conference in Kaohsiung on Saturday, which he abruptly canceled at the last minute, Han said he canceled the conference because he had already given a speech on stage.
He had spoken his mind and urged his supporters to return home and calmly accept the election results in a concession speech earlier that day, he said.
“We hoped people would calm down, because they were very emotional... They were almost out of control,” Han added.
Asked about video footage showing him dining at a hotpot restaurant reportedly soon after the canceled news conference, Han said he had treated his campaign team to a meal, as none of them had had dinner.
Han declined to answer a question about younger KMT members’ call for a review of the party’s cross-strait policy, saying that it is irrelevant to the city government.
However, he said that there is a storm awaiting the nation.
“Members of the public must be united and the central government must lead the nation along a path with the most favorable conditions, while avoiding the opposite,” Han said.
Asked if he would consider running for party chairman if KMT Chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) steps down, Han said he has “absolutely no plans” to run for the post.
While a coalition of civic groups continue with a campaign to recall Han, he said that the campaign was launched just two months after he became mayor.
That such a campaign exists shows the value of freedom and democracy, Han said, adding that his team at the city government would continue to work hard.
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
Labor rights groups yesterday called on the Ministry of Labor to protect migrant workers in Taiwan’s fishing industry, days after CNN reported alleged far-ranging abuses in the sector, including deaths and forced work. The ministry must enforce domestic labor protection laws on Taiwan-owned deep-sea fishing vessels, the Coalition for Human Rights for Migrant Fishers told a news conference outside the ministry in Taipei after presenting a petition to officials. CNN on Sunday reported that Taiwanese seafood giant FCF Co, the owners of the US-based Bumble Bee Foods, committed human rights abuses against migrant fishers, citing Indonesian migrant fishers. The alleged abuses included denying
RSS