Former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday announced his bid for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairperson, a position he held from 2015 to 2016.
Chu made the announcement via a post on Facebook under the title “Change brings hope, regaining leadership brings about change.”
“Given the plight facing the KMT, as a member of the party, I feel duty-bound [to help] and officially announce that I will join the race for KMT chairperson,” he wrote.
Photo: Cheng Ming-hsiang, Taipei Times
If elected, Chu promised to form a work panel to prepare for next year’s local elections and to select the strongest candidate to represent the party in the 2024 presidential race to help the KMT return to power.
“In face of the Democratic Progressive Party’s chaotic governance,” he said he would integrate and present the achievements of the 14 local governments ruled by the KMT to demonstrate the party’s governing capacity.
Chu is expected to pose the greatest challenge to KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang’s (江啟臣) re-election bid.
The KMT chairperson election was originally scheduled for July 24, but was postponed to Sept. 25 due to a local COVID-19 outbreak. Aside from Chiang and Chu, three other KMT members have expressed their intention to join the race — Chang Ya-chung (張亞中), president of the non-governmental organization the Sun Yat-sen School; Wei Po-tao (韋伯韜), former head of the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics; and former Changhua County commissioner Cho Po-yuan (卓伯源).
Local media reports said former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) and Sean Lien (連勝文), son of former vice president Lien Chan (連戰), are also interested in running for KMT chairperson.
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
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