With the televised debates between presidential and vice presidential candidates concluding with the second presidential debate on Saturday, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is getting ready for a burst of activity prior to the Jan. 14 elections, DPP campaign office spokesperson Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) said yesterday.
The DPP is scheduled to hold about 40 large rallies, with both the presidential and vice presidential candidates canvassing for votes along Provincial Highway Nos. 1, 3 and 9 by motorcade, Hsu said, adding that starting from Saturday, large rally events would be held in counties and cities every night.
The DPP will also mobilize all DPP civil servants in canvassing at important crossroads as well as traditional markets, Hsu said.
Photo: Hsieh Yin-chung, Taipei Times
Following the recall of all campaign piggy banks yesterday, Hsu said more events allowing mass public participation would be organized. He added that there would also be another wave of public relations activities aimed at explaining DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) policies to the public, using mass media and the Internet.
Hsu said the DPP and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) were almost tied in the race, adding that this was the first time in 25 years that the DPP was able to go toe-to-toe with the KMT.
This shows the government has not won public support, Hsu said.
Commenting on the Yu Chang Biologics Co controversy, Hsu said it was a classic maneuver of using the state apparatus to oppress a certain presidential candidate, adding that Taiwanese have enough wisdom to judge for themselves.
History also shows that the side that uses negative campaigning methods usually loses the elections, Hsu said.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm earlier today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, in this year's Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am, the CWA said. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) with a 100km radius, it said. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA meteorologist Huang En-hung (黃恩宏) said. However, a more accurate forecast would be made on Wednesday, when Yinxing is