In remote Taitung County on Taiwan’s southeastern edge, the Nov. 29 nine-in-one elections are pretty much in the bag for dozens of candidates campaigning to become city and township mayors and council members, or village and borough wardens.
In contrast to the commissioner’s race, which pits Taitung County Commissioner Justin Huang (黃健庭) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) against Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Liu Chao-hao (劉櫂豪), 39 candidates for village and borough warden in the county’s 16 cities and townships are the only contenders contesting their respective polls.
Making their task even easier is an electoral provision that allows them to win with just one ballot — even if that ballot is cast by the candidates themselves.
In the county councilor contests, seven candidates are campaigning unopposed, although election rules stipulate that these hopefuls will have to win the votes of one-tenth of the total number of eligible voters in their respective constituencies, divided by the number of councilor seats for that constituency.
Among the city and township mayoral polls, only the race for the rural township of Yanping (延平) remains uncontested. The sole candidate would have to win the support of 20 percent of eligible voters to get elected as head of the 3,617-person township, according to electoral rules.
On election day, voters across the nation are to select mayors for the six special municipalities; the commissioners and mayors of 16 counties and provincial cities; 375 municipal councilors; 532 city and county councilors; 198 mayors of townships and county-controlled cities; 2,096 councilors for township and county-controlled city councils; six Aboriginal district representatives; 50 representatives for Aboriginal district councils; and 7,851 village and borough wardens.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
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