Taipei City Councilor Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday said he would resign from the council next week to seek his party’s nomination to run for mayor of Taoyuan, demonstrating his confidence in being selected by his party.
Lo, who has chosen to resign on Monday, said that the move was historic, as no elected official in Taiwan has resigned a position before winning a party’s nomination to run for another elected post.
Cheng Wen-tsan of the Democratic Progressive Party has been mayor of Taoyuan since 2014, when Taoyuan city and county were merged into a special municipality. Before that, Taoyuan was led by John Wu (吳志揚) of the KMT from 2009 to 2014 and KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) from 2001 to 2009.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Elected to the Taipei City Council in 2018, the 52-year-old Lo represents the city’s Wenshan (文山) and Daan (大安) districts. He served as Presidential Office spokesman for two years during former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) second term.
Lo is reportedly lagging behind other KMT mayoral hopefuls in party polling, but the KMT leadership is said to be willing to back whichever candidate has the best chance of winning.
Lu Yu-ling (呂玉玲), a third-term KMT legislator hailing from Taoyuan, has declared her interest in the nomination, while Legislator Lu Ming-che (魯明哲) is said to be the party front-runner for the nomination.
In February, the KMT said it would select candidates for the elections in November instead of holding primaries.
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
Reports of Taiwanese going missing, being detained or interrogated, or having their personal liberties restricted in China increased about fourfold annually last year, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. Last year, 221 Taiwanese who traveled to China were reported missing, were detained and interrogated, or otherwise had their personal freedom restricted, up from 55 the previous year, the council said. Reopening group tours to China would be risky, as it would leave travelers with no way to seek help through official channels after Beijing shut down dialogue between the associations tasked with handling cross-strait tourism, the MAC said. Taipei’s Taiwan Strait Tourism
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