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.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) today said that if South Korea does not reply appropriately to its request to correct Taiwan’s name on its e-Arrival card system before March 31, it would take corresponding measures to alter how South Korea is labeled on the online Taiwan Arrival Card system. South Korea’s e-Arrival card system lists Taiwan as “China (Taiwan)” in the “point of departure” and “next destination” fields. The ministry said that it changed the nationality for South Koreans on Taiwan’s Alien Resident Certificates from “Korea” to “South Korea” on March 1, in a gesture of goodwill and based on the
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
The New Taipei Metro's Sanyin Line and the eastern extension of the Taipei Metro's Tamsui-Xinyi Line (Red Line) are scheduled to begin operations in June, the National Development Council said today. The Red Line, which terminates at Xiangshan Station, would be connected by the 1.4km extension to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, while the Sanyin Line would link New Taipei City's Tucheng and Yingge stations via Sanxia District (三峽). The council gave the updates at a council meeting reviewing progress on public construction projects for this year. Taiwan's annual public infrastructure budget would remain at NT$800 billion (US$25.08 billion), with NT$97.3
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