Groups within the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) are expected to vie for high-level positions at the party’s national congress today in Taipei, while leading party figures are to stump for its Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁).
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), as party chairwoman, is to oversee the event, which has chosen “Unite for Taiwan, Go Forward in the World” as its theme.
On the agenda is the election of the party’s core power structure, which consists of the decisionmaking bodies of the Central Executive Committee and Central Standing Committee.
Photo: Su Fun-her, Taipei Times
The party’s charter stipulates that the congress must elect 30 members for the executive committee, from which party members would choose 10 to make up the standing committee.
The party in 2006 resolved to dissolve its factions in a move to bolster party unity, although the groupings are still recognized by many inside and outside the DPP.
High-ranking party insiders said former New Tide faction members would likely pick up three seats for the standing committee, represented by Taipei City councilors Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華) and Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) and Legislator Lee Kun-tse (李昆澤) from Kaohsiung.
Two seats are expected to go to the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association, which has aligned with “Ing’s Clique” — a group of party members close to Tsai — with the former to nominate Central Standing Committee member Chen Mao-sung (陳茂松) and Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃), while Ing’s Clique would nominate former national policy adviser Huang Cheng-kuo (黃承國) and Legislator Su Chen-ching (蘇震清), party insiders said.
Also for the Central Standing Committee, Premier Su Tseng-chang’s (蘇貞昌) supporters are expected to take one seat, likely for Legislator Wu Ping-jui (吳秉叡), while one seat could go to media mogul Lin Kun-hai’s (林崑海) group, which is pushing for Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇), the sources said.
Lin’s group would reportedly also contest the final seat against the “Green Friendship Coalition,” who are expected to nominate Legislator Mark Ho (何志偉), while Lin’s supporters would likely counter with Taiyen Biotech chairman Chen Chi-yu (陳啟昱), the sources said.
Another position of contention is chairperson of the DPP Central Review Committee, with Legislator Chen Ming-wen (陳明文) reportedly favored by Ing’s Clique while others are reportedly aligned to Kaohsiung City Councilor Kang Yu-cheng (康裕成), they added.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,