Hualien County Deputy Commissioner Chang Chi-ming (張志明) yesterday announced his withdrawal from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to run in the Hualien County commissioner election as an independent.
Chang lashed out at the KMT for its failure to follow the primary process by seeking to nominate former health minister Yeh Ching-chuan (葉金川) and urged the party to take the matter seriously and respect the voices of residents in Hualien.
“The KMT’s rough handling of the primary process violated legal procedures and damaged procedural justice,” Chang said in a press conference.
“I want to do my job rather than play political games and hopefully my withdrawal will help the party hear the voice of the people of Hualien,” he said.
Chang’s move created another pan-blue split for the KMT in the local government head elections in December and sparked growing concern within the KMT about the party’s performance in the year-end elections.
The KMT suspended the primary election in May and barred KMT Legislator Fu Kun-chi (傅崑萁) from taking part in the primary because he was found guilty in his first and second trials in two cases. It restarted the primary process later after Yeh, the party’s preferred candidate, agreed to join.
Yeh, however, lost the primary to former Hualien County Agricultural Development Office director Tu Li-hua (杜麗華), forcing the KMT to nominate Tu as its candidate.
In response, KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) acknowledged yesterday that a series of recent pan-blue splits had given rise to a sense of panic within the party, but shrugged off concerns about its performance in the elections.
“There are always several cases of party members withdrawing for the local government elections,” Wu said.
The KMT is also having trouble finding a candidate for the Yunlin County commissioner election after Chang Li-shan (張麗善) withdrew her candidacy on Monday.
The defeat of Chang Ken-hui (張艮輝) in the Yunlin legislative by-election to the Democratic Progressive Party’s Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) and the split of local party factions behind Chang Ken-hui and candidate Chang Hui-yuan (張輝元) were the main factors behind her withdrawal.
Wu said the party would choose a new candidate within two or three days and that the candidate would be a party member from Yunlin with integrity and a clean image.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by