The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) two leading candidates in the Taipei mayoral race have stepped up their campaigns during an intense two-day poll to help determine the party’s nomination.
KMT Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) invited Taipei Computer Association president Tung Tsu-hsien (童子賢) and news commentator Tsai Shih-ping (蔡詩萍) to stump for him at a campaign rally on Sunday.
Also showing up to support Ting was a woman who pushed the Compulsory Automobile Liability Insurance Act (強制汽車責任保險法) through the legislature in 1996, former Republic of China Car Accident Rescuer Association chairperson Ko Tsai Yu-chiung (柯蘇玉瓊).
Photo: CNA
She described Ting as a person “who has always stood on the side of the people and the socially disadvantaged” and said he was the only lawmaker to strongly back her two-decade campaign to promote the act, while many others tried to block it.
The 59-year-old Ting, a legislator since 1990 except for three years from 2002 to 2005, expressed his gratitude to the many friends who came to support him.
“Facing the enormous resources of my competitor, I will climb up against the wind,” Ting said.
He was alluding to former EasyCard Corp chairman Sean Lien (連勝文), the 44-year-old son of former vice president Lien Chan (連戰), who is seen as a rising star in the party and the frontrunner in the race.
A member of the KMT’s Central Committee, Sean Lien yesterday also campaigned for public support along with his wife, Tsai Yi-shan (蔡依珊), at a charity gala in Neihu District (內湖).
While Tsai used her warm smile to canvas support, Sean Lien promoted his vision of rebalancing the city’s development by revitalizing western Taipei and upgrading the already vibrant eastern part of the city.
Sean Lien also trumpeted a list of advisers he has recruited to help him develop policies to achieve his vision.
They include former minister of the interior Lee Hong-yuan (李鴻源), former Taiwan Stock Exchange chairman Schive Chi (薛琦), sina.com cofounder Ben Tsiang (蔣顯斌) and former minister of education Wu Ching-ji (吳清基).
Sean Lien said the team is to help him address such issues as disaster control and prevention, urban renewal, financial affairs, and culture and innovation.
Although there has been little mudslinging during the primary campaign, the candidates have traded barbs.
Sean Lien described Ting as an older-generation politician who is out of touch with the times lacks, imagination, cannot go against the grain and is closed to creativity.
Ting said that Sean Lien’s idea of relocating Taipei City Hall to the older western part of the city was a waste of money.
“Bad policy is worse than corruption,” he said.
The KMT primary for the Taipei mayoral nomination consists of a public opinion poll, which was conducted Sunday and yesterday, and a vote by party members in the city to be held on Saturday.
The poll is to account for 70 percent of the final tally and the vote contributing the remaining 30 percent. The nominee is to be announced on Wednesday next week
KMT Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元) and City Councilor Chung Hsiao-ping (鍾小平) are also vying for the nomination, but are seen as having little chance of success.
A first shipment of five tons of Taiwan tilapia was sent from Tainan to Singapore on Wednesday, following an order valued at NT$600,000 (US$20,500) placed with a company in the city. The products, including frozen whole fish and pre- cooked fish belly, were dispatched from Jiangjun Fishing Harbor, where a new aquatic processing and logistics center is under construction. At the launch, Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) called the move a “breakthrough,” marking Taiwan’s expansion into the Singaporean tilapia market. Taiwan’s tilapia exports have traditionally focused on the United States, Canada, and the Middle East, Huang said, adding that the new foothold in
An electric bus charging facility at Taipei Metro’s Beitou Depot officially opened yesterday with 22 charging bays to serve the city’s 886 electric buses. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) told a ceremony to mark the opening of the facility that the city aims to fully electrify its bus fleet by 2030. The number of electric buses has grown from about 650 last year to 886 this year and is expected to surpass 1,000 by the end of the year, Chiang said. Setting up the charging station in a metro depot optimizes land and energy use, as the metro uses power mainly during the
An exhibition demonstrating the rejuvenation of the indigenous Kuskus Village in Pingtung County’s Mudan Township (牡丹) opened at the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency’s conservation station in Taipei on Thursday. Agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) said they have been promoting the use and development of forestry resources to local indigenous residents for eight years to drive regional revitalization. While modern conservation approaches mostly stem from western scientific research, eco-friendly knowledge and skills passed down through generations of indigenous people, who have lived in Taiwan for centuries, could be more suitable for the environment, he said. The agency’s Pingtung branch Director-General Yang Jui-fen (楊瑞芬)
Traffic controls are to be in place in Taipei starting tonight, police said, as rallies supporting recall efforts targeting the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers as well as a rally organized by the KMT opposing the recall campaigns are to take place tomorrow. Traffic controls are to be in place on City Hall Road starting from 10pm tonight and on Jinan Road Section 1 starting from 8am tomorrow, police said. Recall campaign groups in Taipei and New Taipei advocating for the recall of KMT legislators, along with the Safeguard Taiwan, Anti-Communist Alliance (反共護台聯盟), have previously announced plans for motorcycle parades and public
RSS