Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) arrived in Los Angeles on Thursday to rally support for his party among overseas Taiwanese in the run up to the Nov. 27 mayoral elections in five special municipalities.
Speaking with reporters at his hotel, King, on the issue of incumbent Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing’s (楊秋興) decision to run for mayor of the Kaohsiung municipality as an independent, said it has added an element of uncertainty to the race, which might be in the KMT’s favor.
Yang, bucking the results of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) primaries, announced on Monday his decision to withdraw from the DPP and to run as an independent in the November Greater Kaohsiung mayoral election. Tainan Mayor Hsu Tain-tsair (許添財) of the DPP, who also lost in the party’s primary, has previously said he would announce his decision in the coming days on whether he would follow in Yang’s footsteps and declare an independent bid for the mayoral race in Greater Tainan. Yang’s decision and Hsu’s comment have given rise to speculation that the DPP’s southern Taiwan strongholds could be breached.
On his US trip, King hailed the KMT’s candidates in Taipei, Sinbei and Taichung cities as being more capable than their DPP rivals to build a better life for the residents of those areas.
Earlier in the day, the DPP’s candidate for Taipei City, Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), arrived in Los Angeles on the first leg of a five-day visit to seek support among overseas Taiwanese.
Back in Taipei, the DPP yesterday rebutted King’s accusation that the DPP Sinbei mayoral candidate, Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), has failed to promise to complete her Sinbei City mayoral post if she wins the presidential election in 2012.
Criticizing King for having a double standard on the issue, Tsai’s deputy campaign chief Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said: “The KMT’s [Sinbei mayoral candidate] Eric Chu (朱立倫) left his public service posts three times before finishing his term when he previously held the positions of KMT legislator, Taoyuan County commissioner and vice premier.”
Additional reporting by Rich Chang
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.
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