Former Taipei EasyCard Corp chairman Sean Lien (連勝文) came out as the top contender for the next Taipei mayoral race, gaining more than 40 percent support in a latest poll over likely pan-green camp contenders, including lawyer Wellington Koo (顧立雄) and physician Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), director of National Taiwan University Hospital’s department of traumatology.
The poll released by the TVBS TV yesterday found that 48 percent of respondents said they would vote for Lien if he was running against Koo, while 24 percent said they would support Koo.
If Lien was running against Ko, 42 percent said they would vote for Lien, while 32 percent supported Ko, the survey showed.
Lien, who is on a trip to China with his father, former vice president Lien Chan (連戰), yesterday maintained a low-key stance when asked if he would run in the seven-in-one municipal elections at the end of next year.
“I am still thinking about it... There are complicated situations to clarify, and I must make a responsible decision,” he said in Hangzhou.
The younger Lien is seen as the most competitive candidate for the pan-blue camp in the mayoral race.
However, he reportedly has been hesitant to commit because of health reasons and memories of a shooting incident at a campaign event in 2010 in which he was shot in the cheek.
He declined to comment on his family’s alleged opposition to his pursuing a political career.
Four Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members have declared their intention to seek their party’s nomination for the race.
They are legislators Alex Tsai (蔡正元) and Ting Shou-chung (丁守中), and Taipei City councilors Yang Shi-chiu (楊實秋) and Chin Hui-chu (秦慧珠).
It is said that Sean Lien will make public his decision about the Taipei race early next year.
A recently discovered supernova is the brightest and closest to Earth identified in the past decade, and can be observed with basic equipment, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said on Wednesday. The supernova has an absolute magnitude of 14.9 in luminosity and is in the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) about 21 million light-years from Earth. It was discovered early on May 20 by Japanese amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki, who immediately reported the finding to the International Astronomical Union, the museum said. The supernova was designated SN 2023ixf following the astronomical naming conventions for supernovas, it added. The museum said that it observed
Tropical storm Guchol is moving in a northeasterly direction off the east coast of the Philippines and will not hit Taiwan, but will impact local weather starting on Friday, the Central Weather Bureau said Thursday. The storm would bring a low-pressure system northward toward the vicinity of Taiwan, forecaster Chao Hung (趙竑) said. Northern Taiwan will see intermittent rain showers in the morning, and thunderstorms in the afternoon on Friday, he said, adding that rain would be heavier on the east coast and in the central-southern mountainous areas. Rainfall would continue into Saturday, and would spread throughout Taiwan proper, he
Exiled Chinese democracy advocate Wang Dan (王丹) yesterday denied an accusation by former Taiwanese political worker Lee Yuan-chun (李援軍) that Wang had sexually harassed him in a hotel room in New York nine years ago. There was a huge gap between Lee’s accusation and his own understanding and memory, Wang wrote on Facebook, adding it was hard for him to respond further regarding a “unilateral description” made by someone else. Wang made the remarks after his initial response on Facebook was met with criticism, with people saying he did not directly address the allegation. Lee on Friday wrote on Facebook that he
A man was arrested in Hsinchu on Saturday on suspicion of filming women in the women’s washroom of a shopping mall in the city, local Chinese-language media reported on Thursday. The man was arrested at around noon on Saturday when a woman using a stall in the mall’s washroom noticed a cellphone being held above her from the neighboring stall, reports said. The woman ran out of the washroom and yelled to her husband to help her, after which the suspect – who was dressed as a woman – attempted to flee, but was subdued by other men until police
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