Former legislator Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀) yesterday registered to run in the legislative by-election for Taichung’s second electoral district, after the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on Nov. 4 tapped her to be its candidate.
Accompanied by party politicians and supporters, Lin filed the application forms at the Central Election Commission’s (CEC) Taichung office and paid the NT$200,000 deposit to become an official candidate in the Jan. 9 by-election.
Lin launched her election campaign dressed in a white doctor’s coat with a sash bearing her name.
Photo: Chen Chien-chi, Taipei Times
From 2016 to last year, Lin served as a DPP legislator-at-large.
A gynecologist by profession, Lin worked for many years at Chung Shan Medical University Hospital in Taichung.
Yesterday, accompanied by DPP officials and city councilors, Lin was also joined by former Taiwan Statebuilding Party (TSP) legislator Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟), whose recall triggered the upcoming by-election, and TSP Chairman Chen Yi-chi (陳奕齊) in a show of unity among the pan-green camp.
Addressing supporters, Lin said: “We will win this race so that this Taichung electorate district will have a new political environment.”
“In doing so, we will rouse up people longing for a fresh start in political landscapes across the nation,” she added.
“This race is not for myself, so that I can pursue higher political office, but it is for the DPP and the TSP, as we respond together to fulfill the wishes of the voters in this district, and for all Taiwanese who have expressed the desire to have a fresh start and politics that diverges from the past,” Lin said.
Supporting Lin were DPP Legislators Ho Hsin-chun (何欣純) and Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅), who represent Taichung, as well as former Taichung mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), several DPP Taichung city councilors and representatives of several women’s groups.
Lin Chia-lung, who is also a former minister of transportation and communications, said that he would serve as director for Lin Ching-yi’s campaign.
“As long as it is a clean election, I am confident Lin Ching-yi will win this seat,” he said.
On Sunday, he rejected the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) claim that Lin Ching-yi is “a parachute candidate” with no particular local connections, citing their two decades as colleagues at Chung Shan Medical University Hospital.
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