The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) plans to give additional support to its candidates in Yilan County and Kaohsiung ahead of the Nov. 24 nine-in-one elections, while it is confident about its prospects in Taoyuan and Hsinchu City, party sources said yesterday.
In the 2014 local elections, Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) of the DPP was not considered a viable rival to then-Taoyuan mayor John Wu (吳志揚) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), but he won nonetheless, allowing the DPP to take office in a city long dominated by the pan-blue camp.
The DPP is optimistic about Cheng’s re-election prospects, the sources said, adding that Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅) — the nation’s youngest mayor — should likewise be re-elected after beating former Hsinchu mayor Hsu Ming-tsai (許明財) of the KMT in a surprise victory four years ago.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
However, DPP Yilan county commissioner candidate Chen Ou-po (陳歐珀) is having difficulty catching up to the KMT’s Lin Zi-miao (林姿妙) in the county dubbed “the holy ground of Taiwanese democracy,” the sources said.
The problem is not external factors, but internal issues, campaign workers said, adding that even President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has complained about a lack of unity among party members in the county.
The DPP is working to boost its prospects in Yilan County by asking members to attend to the needs of its 12 townships, the sources said.
For example, Council of Agriculture Minister and former Yilan County commissioner Lin Tsung-hsien (林聰賢) would take care of Luodong Township (羅東) — Lin Zi-miao’s stronghold — while Acting Yilan County Commissioner Derek Chen (陳金德) is responsible for Suao Township (蘇澳), they said.
Meanwhile, to help DPP Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), whose support rating is at risk of falling behind that of his KMT rival, Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), former Kaohsiung mayor and Presidential Office Secretary-General Chen Chu (陳菊) has been visiting the city to campaign, the sources said.
DPP supporters nationwide have been quiet compared with previous elections, the sources said, adding that reigniting passion among the party’s support base remains a challenge.
KMT New Taipei City mayoral candidate Hou You-yi (侯友宜) has been politicizing the planned Shenao power plant to attack his DPP rival, Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), but the gambit is losing steam, especially after Premier William Lai (賴清德) on Friday announced that the plan might be scrapped if the third liquefied natural gas terminal project passes an environmental impact assessment, the sources said.
While some have said that a scandal at the Transitional Justice Commission involving an alleged plan to target Hou might affect the DPP’s prospects in New Taipei City, the sources said the effect on the elections would be limited.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening 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) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS