Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), whose popularity rose after the city staged the 2009 World Games, has emerged as one of the favored campaigners among Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) hopefuls ahead of the year-end city and county chief elections.
Chen has been invited to campaign for DPP county commissioner candidates Chang Hwa-kuan (張花冠) in Chiayi, Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) in Taoyuan and Tsao Chi-hung (曹啟鴻) in Pingtung, as well as mayoral candidate Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲) in Chiayi City.
She visited Yilan County yesterday for an election rally for county commissioner candidate Lin Tsung-hsien (林聰賢).
PHOTO: YANG YI-MIN, TAIPEI TIMES
DPP candidates have in the past tended to seek public support from senior party members like former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and former premiers Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), but Chen Chu has emerged from their shadows to become a popular campaign draw.
The Kaohsiung mayor said she hoped to offer warm support for party comrades during a low period for the DPP and regain voters’ confidence in the party.
A survey of Kaohsiung City residents published by the city’s Research, Development and Evaluation Commission on Sept. 24 found that 82 percent of respondents said they felt proud to be a resident of Kaohsiung. Chen Chu’s mayorship had a 78 percent approval rating.
The commission attributed her rising approval rate, which was 10 percent higher than a year ago, to the World Games in July.
The “three-in-one” elections for mayors and magistrates, city and county councilors, and city and township heads will be held on Dec. 5.
As six cities and counties — Taipei County, Taitung City and County, Tainan City and County and Kaohsiung County — will be upgraded or merged into municipalities that will not elect new chiefs until late next year, this year’s elections will be held in only 17 cities and counties.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) is to begin his one-year alternative military service tomorrow amid ongoing legal issues, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Wang, who last month was released on bail of NT$150,000 (US$4,561) as he faces charges of allegedly attempting to evade military service and forging documents, has been ordered to report to Taipei Railway Station at 9am tomorrow, the Alternative Military Service Training and Management Center said. The 33-year-old would join about 1,300 other conscripts in the 263rd cohort of general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung, a center official told reporters. Wang would first
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
RSS