The Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) Taipei and Sinbei mayoral candidates campaigned together again yesterday, pledging to win the right to host the 2019 Asian Games and step up efforts to promote sports.
Wearing baseball shirts and swinging bats, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) and Sinbei City mayoral candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) promised to work together to build more sports facilities and promote sports by hosting international events.
“All of us, regardless of party affiliation, should join together to support our athletes. Hosting international events offers a great opportunity to improve sports facilities and raises public interest in sports,” Chu said at a joint press conference held at KMT headquarters.
PHOTO: FANG PIN-CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
Hau said that the Taipei City Government “successfully” held the Deaflympics last year and would build basketball and tennis centers to support bids to host more international sporting events.
According to the proposal, the two cities will launch a joint bid next month to host the Asian Games, with a budget of NT$30 billion (US$940 million). In addition to two new sports centers, the budget will be used to build an athlete's village along the airport MRT line.
Yesterday's press conference marked the third in a series of joint events Hau and Chu plan to hold.
The KMT is seeking to appeal to voters by focusing on the potential for close cooperation between Hau and Chu on ongoing municipal construction projects as they compete for votes with the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) Taipei mayoral candidate, former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), and its Sinbei City mayoral candidate, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
Hau said the two cities would also jointly launch a bid to host the World University Games in 2017 and the East Asian Games in 2017.
In other news, the KMT plans to hold its weekly Central Standing Committee in Kaohsiung today to campaign for party candidate Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) and strengthen communication with local party members ahead of November's elections.
Kaohsiung will host the first of the committee's out-of-town meetings, held to campaign for the party's candidates in the five special municipality elections. The timing of the committee meeting in Kaohsiung attracted even more attention after Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) of the DPP declared his intention to run in the election as an independent, despite losing the party primary.
KMT Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) yesterday dismissed allegations that he played a role in persuading Yang to throw his hat in the ring, adding that the KMT does not need a split in the pan-green camp to boost its chances in the election.
“We should always count on ourselves to win the elections. I think we have done our best in the campaign so far and we are waiting for an opportunity to claim victories in the south,” he said.
KMT spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) shrugged off Yang's possible run in the Greater Kaohsiung mayoral race, saying the party would focus on its own campaign strategy to help Huang become the first mayor of Greater Kaohsiung.
“The KMT's only goal is to help Huang win the election, we do not care how many rivals there are,” he said, adding that the key for Huang to win the Kaohsiung race would be her ability to unite the pan-blue camp’s local factions.
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