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.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
RSS