Both the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have set central Taiwan as the key battleground in the approaching nine-in-one elections on Nov. 29.
With that in mind, some of the DPP’s candidates in the region, including Greater Taichung mayoral candidate Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), Changhua County commissioner candidate Wei Ming-ku (魏明谷) and Nantou County commissioner candidate Lee Wen-chung (李文忠), have seen their campaigns revolving around themes of regional governance and integrated construction.
In addition to attending joint campaign events, the trio have also appeared in a campaign advertisement promoting their plan to build a “common living circle” linking the three administrative regions.
Their cooperation has proven to be effective, putting further pressure on their KMT rivals, a high-ranking DPP member said, citing the candidates’ strong performances in recent opinion polls.
However, the DPP’s latest analysis shows that while Wei leads his main opponent, the KMT’s Lin Tsang-min (林滄敏), in polls, organization and coordination are the latter’s strong suit and that former Taiwan Solidarity Union lawmaker Huang Wen-ling’s (黃文玲) running for Changhua County commissioner could impede Wei’s attempts to draw all the support he can get from the pan-green camp.
As for the Yunlin County race, the DPP’s Lee Chin-yung (李進勇) has lost his lead in opinion polls and now has nearly the same level of support as his KMT rival, Chang Li-shan (張麗善).
The same trend has also been observed in the outlying county of Penghu, where the DPP’s Chen Kuang-fu (陳光復) has also lost the edge over his KMT opponent, Su Kun-hsiung (蘇崑雄), because of the latter’s effective strategic planning.
According to a source with close ties to the higher echelons of the DPP, who requested anonymity, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) came up with the concept of “regional governance” in her Platform for the Coming Decade when she was vying for the presidency in 2012.
“Tsai meant for the concept to address the problems of unequal distribution of government resources as a result of the sudden upgrade of five administrative regions into special municipalities in 2010, as well as the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor,” the source said.
A DPP campaign staffer said the party headquarters proposed the regional governance concept to Lin Chia-lung, Wei and Lee Wen-chung in the latter half of this year and that the trio readily accepted the idea.
“Now that the concept has proven to be a workable strategy, the party has recommended its Yunlin County commissioner candidate Lee Chin-yung, Chiayi City mayor candidate Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲) and Chiayi County commissioner candidate Helen Chang (張花冠) to follow suit,” the staff member said.
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
RSS