The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is to present a new main campaign message for the Nov. 24 nine-in-one elections in hopes of energizing its base, a DPP official said yesterday.
“Reform for the next generation” was the campaign message the party had rolled out in July.
However, due to a perceived lack of enthusiasm, the DPP leadership, in a bid to energize the party base, is planning to present “no backtrack from reforms” and “protect Taiwan together” as the new campaign slogans, a senior party official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Photo: Su Fang-ho, Taipei Times
The new campaign message would resonate with President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) address on Double Ten National Day, they said.
The DPP has lost ground in opinion polls, with margins narrowing even in Kaohsiung, which has for a long time reliably voted for the DPP, the official said.
In light of such developments, energizing and motivating the base tops the agenda for DPP strategists, who are increasingly looking to attack as a way to wrest control of the debate from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the official added.
The DPP legislative caucus has held a series of news conferences to slam the KMT over its alleged forgery of signatures on referendum petitions.
Presidential Office Secretary-General Chen Chu (陳菊) has also maintained high visibility on the campaign trail with hard-pressed DPP candidates, stumping for hopefuls in Miaoli County and helping to coordinate the DPP’s strategy in Yilan County.
The DPP Youth Organization yesterday launched a campaign team of young political appointees who are to act as “campaign surrogates” for DPP candidates.
The DPP governs 13 counties and cities, and mayoral elections in the special municipalities of Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung are deemed safe, DPP Secretary-General Hung Yao-fu (洪耀福) said yesterday.
However, the party faces a tough race for the commissionership in Yilan County, while Changhua County and Chiayi City are toss-ups, he said.
The DPP aims to wrest New Taipei City from the KMT and it also has high hopes for Taitung County, he added.
Asked whether the campaign surrogates could compromise the political neutrality of government administration, Hung said that all officials assisting campaigns have taken leaves of absence.
Additional reporting by Su Fang-ho
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to