The Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) Central Standing Committee failed to reach an agreement yesterday on how the party should conduct public opinion polls for its district legislative and presidential primaries.
DPP Acting Chairman Chai Trong-rong (
As for a public poll on the presidential primary, Chai said that the party would hear President Chen Shui-bian (
PHOTO: CHU PEI-HSIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The committee also decided yesterday to hold policy debates for the party's four presidential hopefuls -- Vice President Annette Lu (
The debates will be sponsored by the party -- in accordance with DPP nomination regulations -- instead of being hosted by the pro-independence Taiwan Society, which had scheduled two televised debates late this month.
As to how and when the debates will be held, DPP Secretary-General Lin Chia-lung (
However, the party will not stop the four presidential hopefuls from attending the Taiwan Society's debates, nor will it order them to take part in the debates, Lin added.
Meanwhile, Yu, who was attending a memorial service yesterday, gave a thumbs-up to the results of negotiations held by the president on Tuesday night with the four presidential aspirants to determine the party's representative.
This was Chen's second attempt to negotiate an agreement among the presidential hopefuls. No consensus was reached at the first meeting as Yu insisted on holding a primary to choose the party's representative, while the other three hopefuls conceded that a candidate could be chosen through negotiations.
Following a second meeting between the president and the four aspirants, Presidential Office Deputy Secretary-General Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) announced late on Tuesday night that all four agreed to hold negotiations and promised they would not withdraw from the party or run as independents should they fail to secure the party's nomination.
Hsieh, who also attended the memorial service, refused to comment on the matter.
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry