The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday nominated eight candidates for the legislative election on Jan. 11.
Chanting “Push the pan-blue and pan-green camps to the two sides and put the people in the middle,” the candidates joined Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), the party’s chairman, as he made a public appearance in Taipei.
Taipei City Government adviser Tsai Pi-ju (蔡壁如), one of the TPP’s founders, said that the nomination of the legislators, who have an average age of about 40, marks the beginning of the party’s efforts to change Taiwan’s political culture.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
The candidates must take responsibility and change the legislative culture, which has always been monopolized by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Tsai said, urging supporters to vote for the TPP and give Taiwan a chance to “reboot” and break free from the long-term struggle between the KMT and DPP.
The TPP legislative candidates include Indonesian-born Kimyung Keng (何景榮), an assistant professor at Feng Chia University, who is to run for a seat in Taipei’s third constituency: Zhongshan District (中山) and northern Songshan District (松山).
Former Taipei Department of Social Welfare confidential secretary Tsai Yi-fang (蔡宜芳), who ran for Kaohsiung city councilor last year, is to run for a seat in Taipei’s seventh constituency: Xinyi District (信義) and southern Songshan District (松山).
Former Taipei City Government consultant Chang Hsin-song (張幸松) is to run for Taipei’s eighth constituency: Wenshan District (文山) and southern Zhongzheng District (中正).
Z9 Digital Communications founder Wu Da-Wei (吳達偉), an internet celebrity better known by his online pseudonym Z9, is to run for a seat in New Taipei City’s seventh constituency: eastern Banciao District (板橋).
Chu Che-cheng (朱哲成) and Wang Yi-kai (王奕凱) are to run for a seat in Miaoli County’s first constituency.
Taichung’s Shangya Borough (上雅) warden Chang Jui-tsang (張睿倉) is to run for Taichung’s third constituency, and Lee Chia-ling (李佳玲), a cram school director and member of Ko’s volunteer team in Kaohsiung and Pingtung, is to run for Kaohsiung’s fifth constituency.
Independent Taipei city councilor and lawyer Hsu Li-hsin (徐立信) is to run for a seat in Taipei’s fifth constituency: Zhongzheng (中正) and Wanhua (萬華) districts.
Ko said his success in getting re-elected as Taipei Mayor last year, while competing against KMT and DPP candidates, was not really a miracle, but highlighted that most people are disappointed in political struggle between the pan-blue and pan-green camps.
“While the largest party in last year’s mayoral elections was the so-called ‘hate DPP party,’ now the largest party for next year’s election is the ‘hate [Kaohsiung Mayor] Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) party’,” he said. “Elections should be about selecting ‘the virtuous and capable person,’ but now people are choosing the least disliked, so we hope the TPP can give the people new choices and hope.”
The single-district, two-vote system passed by DPP and KMT legislators has made it difficult for other parties to win legislative seats, Ko said, adding that the TPP aims to ensure that no single party wins more than half of the legislative seats, so that smaller parties can play a key role in balancing the two main parties’ conflicts.
All parties are competing on a spectrum between pro-independence and pro-unification, but the TPP does not plan to do that, as its campaign will focus on improving national governance, Ko said.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
Fast food chain McDonald's is to raise prices by up to NT$5 on some products at its restaurants across Taiwan, starting on Wednesday next week, the company announced today. The prices of all extra value meals and sharing boxes are to increase by NT$5, while breakfast combos and creamy corn soup would go up by NT$3, the company said in a statement. The price of the main items of those meals, if ordered individually, would remain the same. Meanwhile, the price of a medium-sized lemon iced tea and hot cappuccino would rise by NT$3, extra dipping sauces for chicken nuggets would go up
Yangmingshan National Park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) nature area has gone viral after a park livestream camera observed a couple in the throes of intimate congress, which was broadcast live on YouTube, drawing large late-night crowds and sparking a backlash over noise, bright lights and disruption to wildlife habitat. The area’s livestream footage appeared to show a couple engaging in sexual activity on a picnic table in the park on Friday last week, with the uncensored footage streamed publicly online. The footage quickly spread across social media, prompting a tide of visitors to travel to the site to “check in” and recreate the
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
RSS