Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) won election as chairperson again yesterday by a landslide, taking a symbolic step forward in her quest to run for president in 2016.
Tsai defeated former Kaohsiung county deputy commissioner Kuo Tai-lin (郭泰麟) by 85,410 (93.71 percent) votes to 5,734 (6.29 percent), DPP spokesperson Xavier Chang (張惇涵) said at a press conference yesterday evening, hours after the poll closed.
The turnout rate for the poll was 65.16 percent.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
“I’m well aware of the duties of the next DPP chairperson and that is why I took part in the election. I hope that I can help the party regain the public’s trust and find a new direction and momentum for Taiwan,” Tsai said in a press release issued after her victory was confirmed.
“And those things will not happen until the DPP makes a change,” she added.
Tsai pledged two directions for the DPP — a more open-minded approach to its work with civic groups and a DPP led by a younger generation of politicians, adding that the two goals would be crucial for reconnecting the party with Taiwanese, in particular after the Sunflower movement.
The 57-year-old is scheduled to begin her third two-year tenure as DPP chairperson following her previous two terms from 2008 to 2012, during which she helped the DPP regain momentum and people’s trust en route to a competitive presidential election in 2012, despite ending up on the losing side.
The DPP election, which began as a four-person race, became a head-to-head battle between Tsai and Kuo after outgoing DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) dropped out of the election on April 15.
The two senior politicians yesterday said that Tsai’s imminent return to DPP headquarters would hopefully enable a successful reform of the party.
However, Hsieh said that his view — that a chairman should not double as a presidential candidate — remains unchanged.
The position was Kuo’s primary platform during his campaign, with the challenger repeatedly asking Tsai to promise that she would not run in the 2016 presidential election if she was elected chairperson.
Acknowledging the clear result, Kuo offered his concession before the DPP headquarters announced final vote counts.
Several aides of Tsai, who is widely seen as the favorite to secure the DPP’s presidential nomination next year, had advised her against running for the chairperson’s role because of the role’s complicated nature and the potential harm the position could do to her presidential bid.
Tsai entered the race because the DPP was unable to garner wider support from the public, despite low approval ratings for President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Tsai is not likely to have an easy time early in her role as chairperson, as the KMT is preparing to push through the Legislative Yuan a series of amendments related to the cross-strait service trade agreement, free economic pilot zones and a mechanism monitoring all cross-strait agreements before the current session concludes, and the DPP will need Tsai to coordinate counter actions.
In addition to the chairperson vote, elections for directors of local party chapters, national representatives, Aboriginal representatives and local representatives were also held yesterday.
A total of 143,527 party members were eligible to vote in the elections, the DPP said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique