Both Sinbei City mayoral hopefuls yesterday suggested that a near meet-up between their entourages was unsurprising, given that they have both ramped up their election events as part of campaign frenzy four days before Saturday’s elections.
Accompanied by firecrackers and watched by scores of spectators, their motorcades and dozens of supporters came within several city blocks of one another in tightly fought Yonghe (永和), part of Taipei County, which will be renamed Sinbei after its upgrade to a special municipality next month.
Smiling and waving to supporters, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) both stood in open-top jeeps leading motorcades stretching for dozens of meters.
PHOTO: CNA
Rain or shine, they said, they would make a last minute appeal to voters throughout the municipality, the country’s most populous.
Concerns over a clash were avoided after the two campaigns apparently agreed on a roadmap that avoided overlap, an issue that will grow more important as the two candidates are expected to meet again in Banciao (板橋) the day before the elections.
“It was a coincidence and it’s also another coincidence that we will meet again in Banciao. After all, we plan these events one or two weeks in advance,” said Chu, speaking of yesterday’s near miss.
Tsai agreed, adding that both camps likely chose Banciao as the site of their final election rallies on Friday because it is the seat of the county government.
“It’s the political and economic center of Taipei County and it will remain [so] for Sinbei City in the future,” she said.
The near meet-up took place just hours after Chu launched a new volley of criticism against Tsai’s campaign, attacking it for “masterminding an underhanded” letter campaign to sway voters through what he says are false accusations.
His campaign alleged that over the last two weeks, some residents have received documents alleging that Chu halted an old-age subsidy during his eight-year tenure as Taoyuan County commissioner and that he allowed factories to dump polluted water in Taoyuan rivers.
Speaking of the letters, signed by officials at Tsai’s campaign and a number of DPP city councilor candidates, Chu said he hoped Tsai, a former legal professor, “could maintain a scholar’s conscience and refrain from such actions.”
“[Unfortunately], the DPP has a history of using negative [attacks] in the last few days of any election ... I’m sure that it will happen again” before the election, he said, suggesting that Tsai could not prove her campaign’s allegations.
Officials at Tsai’s campaign have said that Chu’s campaign, which has filed a lawsuit over the documents, should respond truthfully to their assertions because their material is clearly sourced and signed. On the charges that Chu halted the old-age subsidy, the document is also signed by two DPP legislators, Kuo Jung-tsung (郭榮宗) and Huang Jen-shu (黃仁杼).
Three batches of banana sauce imported from the Philippines were intercepted at the border after they were found to contain the banned industrial dye Orange G, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. From today through Sept. 2 next year, all seasoning sauces from the Philippines are to be subject to the FDA’s strictest border inspection, meaning 100 percent testing for illegal dyes before entry is allowed, it said in a statement. Orange G is an industrial coloring agent that is not permitted for food use in Taiwan or internationally, said Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智), head of the FDA’s Northern Center for
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
UNDER PRESSURE: The report cited numerous events that have happened this year to show increased coercion from China, such as military drills and legal threats The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aims to reinforce its “one China” principle and the idea that Taiwan belongs to the People’s Republic of China by hosting celebratory events this year for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the “retrocession” of Taiwan and the establishment of the UN, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in its latest report to the Legislative Yuan. Taking advantage of the significant anniversaries, Chinese officials are attempting to assert China’s sovereignty over Taiwan through interviews with international news media and cross-strait exchange events, the report said. Beijing intends to reinforce its “one China” principle
A total lunar eclipse, an astronomical event often referred to as a “blood moon,” would be visible to sky watchers in Taiwan starting just before midnight on Sunday night, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. The phenomenon is also called “blood moon” due to the reddish-orange hue it takes on as the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, completely blocking direct sunlight from reaching the lunar surface. The only light is refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere, and its red wavelengths are bent toward the moon, illuminating it in a dramatic crimson light. Describing the event as the most important astronomical phenomenon
RSS