The only policy debate among Kaohsiung mayoral by-election candidates is to take place tomorrow afternoon and it is to be shown live on TV and the Internet.
Voting for the by-election is to take place on Aug. 15.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is represented by Kaohsiung City Councilor Jane Lee (李眉蓁), the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) by Kaohsiung City Councilor Wu Yi-jheng (吳益政) and the Democratic Progressive Party by former vice premier Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁).
Photo: CNA
The policy presentation is to be held at the Kaohsiung City Government’s Siwei Administrative Center from 2:30pm to 4pm.
Three moderators would be selected from a list of experts and civic group representatives, and the candidates would rank them before the commission asks them if they are willing to serve as debate moderators, Kaohsiung City Election Commission Chairman Lo Pang-chi (駱邦吉) said.
The commission would not announce the list of moderators before the event, Lo said.
Chen said that he is using spare time between events or while traveling to familiarize himself with pertinent points of his platform.
He said that he treats every policy point seriously and seeks to be intimately familiar with every detail.
His platform is to give due weight to public opinion and to make Kaohsiung better, Chen said, adding that he is methodical and would follow procedure if elected.
Wu said that he is consolidating his platform into ideas and concepts that people can easily understand.
Chen should present answers for the municipality’s debt of NT$300 billion (US$10.16 billion), propose how city finances would be separated from politics and explain how he would distribute the Tax Redistribution Fund, Wu said.
Lee said that her platform focuses on infrastructure, debt reduction and increasing wages, while addressing concerns regarding young people, women, farmers and fishers, as well as environmental issues.
Lee has been under fire over alleged plagiarism of her master’s thesis.
Lee has a support rate of only 21 percent, down 1 percentage point from a previous survey, an opinion poll released on Monday by TVBS showed.
Chen had the highest support rate of 55 percent, up 1 percentage point, while Wu only garnered 5 percent, the poll showed.
Nearly 19 percent of respondents did not express a preference for any candidate, it found.
The Anti-Air Pollution in Southern Taiwan Alliance said that none of the candidates addressed environmental concerns and the group would ask them to propose solutions to air pollution at the debate.
Citizens of the Earth, Taiwan urged the candidates to propose policies to address the threat of gas explosions.
In 2014, a series of gas explosions that began late on July 31 rocked Kaohsiung, causing 32 deaths and injuring 321 people.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard