Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強), of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), won reelection last night when he triumphed over his chief competitor, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍).
Hu declared victory after receiving about 250,000 votes, marking an improvement on his performance four years ago, when he received about 213,000 votes. A feared pan-blue split did not affect Hu's support base, with the People First Party's Shen Chih-hui (
Fireworks immediately lit up the sky after Hu announced victory from his campaign headquarters. Supporters waved flags and shouted "Congratulations, Mayor Hu! Go, go, Mayor Hu" as he made a victory speech.
"I want to thank all residents for your support over the last four years. We will change Taichung City for the better, and make it the brightest city in the Asia-Pacific region," Hu said.
Meanwhile, Lin was admitting defeat from his campaign headquarters.
"This temporary failure gives us a chance to collect our thoughts and reflect on what has happened. I hope this experience will be helpful for the democratic movement in the future," he said yesterday, as he bowed to thank his supporters.
Hu's success in winning a second term was expected, as he enjoyed a steady lead in polls from the beginning of his campaign.
Although the race went largely unnoticed as the electoral focus fell on more unpredictable battles around the country, a series of attacks on Hu by the DPP recently did turn some of the attention back onto what was an intense battle.
The DPP's focus on Hu's health, for example, remained an issue to the very end, with some citizens receiving text messages at about 4am yesterday that said Hu had been sent to the hospital at midnight and was in a critical condition.
Hu cast his vote yesterday morning at a polling station at a local high school and condemned the rumor.
"I am surprised to learn such news, and feel sorry that the climate of the elections is being ruined like this ... I will take legal action against those who spread the rumors," he said.
Police traced the message on the Internet, and identified at least two sources, one of which was in the Philippines.
Hu suffered a mild stroke two years ago while visiting the US.
Possibly as a result of this, his health came under scrutiny in the course of the campaign.
The health issue, along with other accusations, including allegations that he had added a 10-year period of study in the UK to his public service record for a pension application, failed to have a negative impact on Hu's campaign.
Lin resigned from his post as head of the Government Information Office (GIO) earlier this year to enter the race. However, his critics have accused him of being a carpetbagger. In addition, Lin's political experience and popularity lag far behind that of Hu, who previously served as both GIO director and minister of foreign affairs.
Having won a second term, Taichung's deteriorating public order, a problem that has haunted the city for some time, will remain the most important issue awaiting the mayor's attention over the next four years.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS