The DPP's Central Executive Com-mittee yesterday agreed to ask several of its primary candidates to represent the party again to run in the year-end legislative elections.
They included Chen Zau-nan (陳昭南) to run in the Kinmen County constituency, Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) in the Pingtung County constituency and Payen Talu (巴燕達魯) as an Aboriginal legislator for the district category of mountain areas.
Chen is currently a DPP legislator, but failed to win his candidacy as the party's legislator-at-large in its April primary elections. The race in Kinmen County, however, will be a tough one for Chen, as it has long been a KMT-dominated constituency.
Chiu, who also lost in the party's primary election while running for legislator in the southern district of Taipei City, is currently a member of the party's Central Standing Committee. She, however, would enjoy the local support from her birthplace of Pingtung, where her father Chiu Mau-nan (邱茂男) served as a former member of the Taiwan Provincial Consultative Council.
Payen Talu is currently a DPP legislator, but also failed to win his candidacy in the April election.
The party's legislative candidate in Taichung County, Kuo Chun-min (郭俊銘), who was former director of the DPP's department of organizational development, yesterday had his candidacy suspended for a violation of the Public Officials Election and Recall Law in 1995.
Kuo was convicted, given a three-month sentence last February and suspended for two years, following a libel lawsuit brought by his KMT rival Yang Wen-hsin (楊文欣) when both ran in the Taichung County councilors' election.
DPP Deputy Secretary-General Hsu Yang-min (
"Therefore, they propose to modify the regulations [to allow Kuo's participation in the election] in the party's upcoming National Congress on Sept. 29," Hsu said at a press conference after the committee met yesterday afternoon, adding that "it is very likely to be approved by the National Congress."
The party also agreed to ask former Taiwan Independence Party legislator Chen Kuang-fu (
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
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