Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative candidates in Greater Kaohsiung yesterday expressed concerns about the KMT’s outlook in the January presidential and legislative elections, accusing the party of not doing enough to support campaign efforts in the area.
The KMT’s weekly Central Standing Committee meeting was held at Wei Wu Ying Center for the Arts in Greater Kaohsiung to boost election momentum in the south. Several legislative candidates at the meeting said that the party could suffer in the elections because of poor campaigns.
“The election outlook is not bad, it’s very bad ... The president said the government has invested hundreds of billions in the south, but people in rural towns have not seen it. What voters know about is the NT$316 increase to farmers’ [monthly] pensions, which has become a laughing matter,” KMT Legislator Chung Chao-ho (鍾紹和) said.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
The government’s decision to raise the monthly subsidy for elderly farmers by only NT$316 would have a negative impact on the elections, he said, urging President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to increase the subsidy by at least NT$1,000 in order to gain support among farmers.
KMT legislative candidates Chiu Yu-hsuan (邱于軒) and Lin Kuo-cheng (林國正) complained of a lack of communication and campaigning efforts in the area.
“The party did not mobilize supporters when Chiu set up her campaign headquarters and we are seldom informed about the itineraries of the president and the premier. President Ma has only been to our electoral districts several times since his election in 2008,” Lin said.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), who is expected to top the list of the KMT’s legislator-at-large nominees, acknowledged the party’s electoral outlook in the elections was far from optimistic, as supporter mobilization in southern cities and counties have not met expectations.
“We expect all members to work harder to support President Ma’s re-election bid. On the other hand, the president needs a majority in the legislature to promote government policies and so the legislative elections are equally important as the presidential election,” he said.
Ma, who doubles as KMT chairman, stressed his efforts in the development of Greater Kaohsiung, while defending his emphasis on pushing for development in the south.
He listed the government’s construction projects in the special municipality, including the development of the Kaohsiung Multi-Functional Economic and Trade Park and the Underground Railway Project, and said the government would continue to invest in Greater Kaohsiung.
“We have spent more money in Kaohsiung than the former Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] government did. We would not focus on construction in the north and ignore the south. Instead, we are putting more effort into developing areas that are falling behind,” Ma said.
While Chiu and some legislative candidates said the KMT was skimping on campaigning in local areas, they applauded the idea of using talismans as campaign promotions against DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) “three little pigs” campaign.
Ma’s re-election campaign office began mass-producing the talismans as a campaign promotional souvenir after the president received amulets from several elderly ladies during his home stay in Greater Taichung over the weekend.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
The Republic of China Army Command yesterday relieved Kinmen Defense Battalion commander after authorities indicted the officer on charges connected to using methamphetamine. The Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Wednesday detained Colonel He (何) after the Coast Guard linked him to drug shipments and proceeded to charge him yesterday for using and possessing crystal meth. The man was released on a NT$50,000 bail and banned from leaving Kinmen, the office said. Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Chen Chien-yi (陳建義) told a news conference yesterday that He has been removed and another officer is taking over the unit as the acting commander. The military
RSS