The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday announced former New Taipei City deputy mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) is the winner in the party’s three-legged primary for the mayoral election of New Taipei, the only KMT-governed special municipality.
KMT Organizational Development Committee Director Lee Che-hua (李哲華) announced the outcome at a morning news conference at KMT headquarters in Taipei, saying that Hou came in first in the averaged poll results, followed by former Taipei County commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) and former New Taipei City councilor Ching Chieh-shou (金介壽).
Contrary to previous practice, Lee did not disclose the actual poll numbers, saying that all three hopefuls agreed to only publish their rankings for the sake of party solidarity and harmony.
Photo: Lai Hsiao-tung, Taipei Times
“They believe [that the party’s] victory in the mayoral race is all that matters,” Lee said.
The KMT’s New Taipei City chapter is scheduled to convene on Monday or Tuesday to officially submit Hou’s nomination to the party headquarters, Lee said, adding that the nomination is set to be reviewed and passed at a meeting of the KMT’s Central Standing Committee on Wednesday.
The nomination of KMT Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖) as the party’s Taoyuan mayoral candidate is also expected to be passed on Wednesday.
Hou’s victory had been expected, despite him being dogged by several unfavorable allegations, including one made by Ching that Hou, a policeman-turned-politician, had been involved with criminal gangs during his three-decade-long police career.
Premier William Lai (賴清德) on Tuesday also pointed to Hou as being the one ordered by the former KMT regime to lead a group of police officers in arresting democracy activist Deng Nan-jung (鄭南榕), who would later commit suicide by self-immolation on April 7, 1989.
Thanking his supporters for helping him to climb over the first hurdle, Hou, who assumed the deputy mayorship in December 2010, said on Facebook yesterday that he would strive to jump the second hurdle, the election itself, in the hope of serving the people of New Taipei City for another four years.
Chou said he would honor his promise not to leave the KMT and run as an independent, pledging to do whatever is necessary to support the party’s candidate.
However, Ching questioned the credibility of the poll results, saying that his poll monitors had discovered a surveyor writing down a name different from the candidate that the respondent said they supported.
Although the KMT decided not to reveal the poll numbers, a party source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Hou defeated Chou by nearly 20 percent and enjoyed a near 20 percent lead over former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) in a hypothetical scenario in which Su represented the DPP in the mayoral race.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition