Taiwan Against Drunk Driving (TADD) yesterday urged candidates running for office in the Nov. 24 local elections to sign a declaration promising to resign if they are charged with driving under the influence.
Since this is an election year, the group hopes that by asking the candidates to take drunk driving seriously, it will raise awareness among the public, TADD director-general Chen Min-hsiang (陳敏香) told a news conference in Taipei.
Chen lost her daughter, National Taiwan University Hospital trauma surgeon Tseng Yu-tzu (曾御慈), in a drunk-driving accident in 2013.
Photo: Su Fun-her, Taipei Times
TADD members cannot bear to see so many lives sacrificed for nothing, so they hope the candidates set an example and enforce a zero-tolerance policy, she said.
The declaration asks candidates to withdraw from the elections if they are charged with drunk driving during the campaign period and to fire campaign staff members who drink and drive, TADD secretary-general Vino Lin (林美娜) said.
Should they be elected, candidates running for mayor or county commissioner should resign and require the department heads of their local governments to do the same if any of them are found guilty of drunk driving, while all other government employees should face severe penalties, she said.
As of Tuesday, 136 candidates running for city and county council seats have signed, she said.
Ten candidates running for mayor in the six special municipalities, including Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲); the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Taipei mayoral candidate, Legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智); independent Taipei mayoral candidate Lee Hsi-kun (李錫錕), Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦); Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taoyuan mayoral candidate Apollo Chen (陳學聖); DPP Tainan mayoral candidate Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲); independent Tainan mayoral candidates Hsu Chung-hsin (許忠信) and Su Huan-chih (蘇煥智); DPP Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁); and KMT Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) have signed, she said.
While DPP New Taipei City mayoral candidate Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) did not sign the declaration, he expressed his support for a zero-tolerance policy, she said.
Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) has said he would sign the declaration in a news release, she said.
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