Taipei mayoral hopefuls without support from the nation's major political parties are relying on less conventional means of support: lawsuits and tearful protests.
Independent Taipei mayoral candidate Clara Chou (周玉蔻) yesterday protested in front of the campaign headquarters of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and accused him of employing a campaign strategy to have voters abandon her and support him.
Chou, who was expelled from the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) early this month, made a scene at Hsieh's headquarters while the police tried to carry her away because she had not applied for permission to stage the protest beforehand.
PHOTO: LIN SU-HUI, TAIPEI TIMES
Hsieh did not show up at the scene, but volunteers at Hsieh's campaign headquarters chanted "shameful" and "staging a campaign show" next to Chou while she screamed, "The police helps the ruling party bully women" during struggles with the police.
The conflict lasted for about half an hour, after which Chou left.
Hsieh's campaign chief Hsiao Yu-chen (
Hsieh told the press later yesterday that he could tolerate Chou's behavior, although he understood every candidate was under great pressure as the election day draws near.
Until Chou lost her TSU membership, she had been considered a pan-green mayoral candidate in addition to Hsieh.
She announced yesterday evening that she would press charges against Hsieh for "being violently treated by his headquarters."
Meanwhile, independent Taipei mayoral candidate Li Ao (李敖) yesterday filed a lawsuit against six local media organizations for not inviting him to participate in a televised election debate.
A total of 17 people are on the defendants' list, including the host of the debate, top executives of the Public Television Service (PTS) and Chinese-language newspapers the Liberty Times, China Times, United Daily News and Apple Daily, as well as the state-funded Central News Agency.
The debate was held on Sunday, with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Hau Lung-bin (
Li accused the organizers of violating the Public Officials Election and Recall Law (公職人員選舉罷免法) by inviting only the three candidates whom they claimed had performed best in opinion polls to take part in the debate.
He said that PTS, as a TV station supported by government funding, was prohibited from being biased in favor of any particular candidate.
Li said that the results of opinion polls cited by the organizers were inaccurate and that he was named as the candidate with the third-highest support rating in an Internet survey conducted on Nov. 20.
He said that the debate organizers' move would influence the outcome of the election, because it would "mislead" the electorate into believing that he had no chance of being elected.
Six candidates are vying for the post of Taipei mayor: Hau; Hsieh; Soong; Li; Chou, who is better known as a TV talkshow host; and independent Ko Szu-hai (柯賜海), commonly called "Taipei's Dog Man" for his colorful demonstrations, often conducted with a menagerie in tow.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
RSS