Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Legislator Tseng Tsahn-deng (
"I am sorry that I have embarrassed my party," Tseng said during a press conference at the TSU caucus office yesterday morning.
A poll was conducted to determine which of the two candidates should run in the Kaohsiung City's 3rd district to avoid competing for the pan-green vote.
Tseng said he would cooperate to increase the pan-green camp's chances of winning the legislative election by withdrawing.
"The facts are the facts. Now that pan-green supporters have decided they prefer Lee, I will sacrifice myself to make that happen. I will return to school and resume teaching," Tseng said.
In response to Tseng's withdrawal, Lee said he did not get any pleasure from defeating his rival.
"Tseng is a lawmaker recognized for his professional and passionate attitude. I admire him and am thankful for his help, but this means a greater responsibility has fallen on my shoulders," Lee said.
The pan-green vote may still be split in the Kaohsiung constituency as DPP Legislator Lin Chin-hsing (林進興) is campaigning for the same legislative seat.
"I haven't yet given up hope of negotiating with Lin," Lee said.
Meanwhile, TSU member Lan Chun-chieh (
Lan said that he had run for the legislature twice as a TSU candidate but lost both times.
"Running in the election as an independent candidate will boost my chances," he said.
In Taipei City's 1st district, the DPP's Kao Chien-chih (
"If we pan-greens compete against each other, it will be difficult for us to win," Kao said.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week